Poland, the knight among nations;

POLAND

THE KNIGHT AMONG
NATIONS

pw£

ZRAV*

POLAND

THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

NICHOLAS COPERNICrs THE FATHER OF MODERN
ASTRON.MV.

(This view of the Polish astronomer, (who w;is the
first to propound the theory that the earth moves aroun 1
the sun) surrounded by the scientists and other worthies
of his time, is reproduced from a rare old si pel em
ing made in 1843, at the celebration of the three-
hundredth anniversary of his death.)

POLAND

THE KNIGHT
AMONG NATIONS

LOUIS ifc VAN NORMAN

With an Introduction by
Helena Modjeska

illustrated

a

^

* n i At

New Yohk Chicago Toronto

Fleming H. Revell Company

London and Edinburgh

Copyright, 1907, by
•FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY

All rights reserved

SECOND EDITION

New York: 158 Fifth Avenue
Chicago : 80 Wabash Avenue
Toronto : 15 Richmond St., W.
London : 21 Paternoster Square
Edinburgh : 100 Princes Street

TO MY WIFE

who taught me all the noble qualities of the Poles and

made me very hopeful of their

national destiny

INTRODUCTORY

ONE fine characteristic I have especially
noted in the American people. As a gen-
eral rule, they are not led to an opinion
by the verdict of any other nation. Of recent
years, particularly, their popular verdicts have
been based upon their own independent judg-
ment, and some of these verdicts have afterwards
been accepted by the whole world. They were
the first to "discover" Sienkiewicz. They did
not accept him on the claims of French, or Ger-
man, or English criticism. By their own native
perception they knew he was great, and now the
whole world has accepted their judgment.

Therefore, I think it is particularly appropri-
ate that it should be an American who now, for
the first time, presents the true Poland, the coun-
try of Sienkiewicz, to the American people.

I must confess that I am usually frightened
when I begin to read anything foreigners write
about Poland and us Poles. So much has ap-
peared that was untrue and distorted and ridic-
ulous. But these " impressions " are so sympa-
thetically written, so discerning, and, at the
same time, so generally impartial and just, that

7

INTRODUCTORY

I am glad to recommend the volume to the dear
land of my adoption as the best I know of about
modern Poland by an outsider. It is so clear,
bo interesting, so pleasantly written, that one
does not want to put it down before reading the
entire book. I was especially pleased with the
chapter on " Polish Music and the Slav Temper-
ament." It is so fair and discriminating. Most
of the names mentioned in this chapter are well
known to me, are personal friends, and I can
recognise the faithful portrayal of these artists,
who, like myself, were contemporaneous with
the first stages of development in the great art
movement in Poland. Several of them, includ-
ing Mr. Sienkiewicz himself, were with my hus-
band and myself in our little colony in Cali-
fornia.

Americans know very little of the real Poland.
Most of them have read " Thaddeus of Warsaw,"
but this Thaddeus was not the real Kosciuszko.
He was not even a real Pole — only a creature
of the author's imagination. Since Sienkiewicz
wrote his Trilogy, Americans have known more.
They have much still to learn, for with all her
faults, there is much in Poland, with her history,
her literature, her art, and her unfortunate p
pie, which Americans ought to know. I am glad
this excellent book has been written.

Helena Modjeska.

8

A FOREWORD

AN" impression " comes so perilously near
A\ being a judgment that the author of this
volume feels called upon to offer a few
words of explanation.

In the following pages no attempt is made to
write a history of Poland, or to present a com-
prehensive study of the Polish national psychol-
ogy. To sound the depths of racial character
would require many years of actual life near the
heart of the people, and elaborate historical re-
search. Nor has the writer ventured to prophesy
the political future of the Poles. Nor, finally,
has he attempted to describe the condition of
Kussian Polish cities during the reign of terror
of the past two years. The following chapters,
many of which have already appeared as maga-
zine articles in this country and in England,
are no more than the first-hand impressions of
an American journalist who has been permitted
to spend a year in the former Polish Common-
wealth, visiting almost all the important his-
toric points. Being the first American ever to
visit all sections of old Poland for the express
purpose of writing about it, he was accorded ex-
ceptional facilities for observation and study.
The result is a collection of honest impressions of
a remarkable people, presented as an humble con-

9

A FOREWORD

tribution to race psychology. To make the pic-
ture more complete, it has seemed worth while
to summon back from the past some of the more
potent personalities of Polish history.

Here is the home of a denationalised people,
in which there is being enacted a century-long
drama worthy of a Homer or a Tacitus. Forty-
four years ago, in the middle of our Civil War,
the Poles had their last uprising against Russian
rule. Ten years of " reconstruction " for our
South seemed an age. Mutinies, riots, and revo-
lutionary outbreaks, all suppressed in blood and
fire, show the world that, after nearly half a
century, Poland is not yet fully " reconstructed."
Politically, there is no Poland, but a distinct, in-
dividual, resistant people, who are no more con-
quered and absorbed by the partitioning powers
than the Hungarians are assimilated by Austria.
The Poles remain a persistent national type, and
the " Polish question " is an ever-present " ghost
that troubles at every European Council."

And yet, up to the time when the Trilogy of
historical works by Henryk Sienkiewicz appeared,
Poland was, of all civilised geographical enti-
ties, the least known to Americans. It is in the
belief that the country of Kosciuszko and Pu-
laski, of Copernicus and Sobieski, of Chopin and
Paderewski, deserves better of the land of Wash-
ington that this book is written.

There are so many striking contrasts — and
startling similarities — between Poland and these

10

A FOREWORD

United States of America, that a study of Polish
history and conditions ought to be of peculiar
interest to us. We Americans are citizens of a
young, powerful, active country, which is the
bulwark of freedom and the refuge of oppressed
peoples. Poland — if one may still speak of her
as a nation — is very old. For a century and
more she has been in chains, with no chance for
activity, save in her spasms of revolution. Yet
how much alike are the two peoples. Both are
brave to a fault. Both live in a country which
is a confederation. The union, in 1569, of Po-
land, Lithuania, and Ruthenia, was the first vol-
untary confederation of independent powers in
Europe. Both peoples incline to elective gov-
ernments; both, while religious themselves, have
ever been tolerant to all other creeds. Both love
liberty better than life. And finally, the greatest
soldier heroes of both — Washington and Kosci-
uszko — fought side by side for American inde-
pendence. But there is a vital present signifi-
cance also to Americans in the psychology of the
Pole. Almost three millions of this highly de-
veloped Slav race are now settled in this coun-
try, rapidly becoming bone and sinew of Ameri-
can national life. A study of the temperament
and genius of this sturdy stock will help us in
understanding more than one factor in our own
pressing problems.

Of modern books on Poland, available to the
general reader, there are very few. Those inter-

11

A FOREWORD

ested in following up some of the facts and allu-
sions in this book should, first of all, read the
immortal Trilogy of Sienkiewicz, as well as
" Children of the Soil," " Hania," " Knights of
the Cross," and " On the Field of Glory," by the
same author. Georg Brandes' " Poland, a Study
of the Land, People, and Literature," will also
prove of value. W. R. MorfilPs " Story of Po-
land " is a good brief reference history, while
Herman Rosenthal's article on " Poland " in the
Jewish Encyclopaedia is an excellent resume of
the Polish Jews' part in history.

The list of those who have aided the author in
the preparation of this book is so large that it
includes practically everyone he met in Poland,
and many others in this country. It is impos-
sible to render adequate thanks to all, but the
author wishes to express grateful acknowledg-
ment, particularly to the patriotic Poles who
have read the manuscript and have made many
valuable suggestions. He also desires to ac-
knowledge courteous permission to reproduce
articles from The Bookman, The Outlook, The
Chautauquan, The Cosmopolitan, Brush and
Pencil, The Booklover's, and other magazines.

The author's opinions, of course, are his own,
and Madame Modjeska's sympathetic introduc-
tion does not indicate, necessarily, her agree-
ment, in detail, with these opinions.

Louis E. Van Noiman.

Wyceojt, New Jeeset, August 1, 1907,

13

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PACK

I. Poland's Role in History ,. M 17

II. Polish Autonomy — Under Austria . 30

III. Cracow: the Heart op Poland . 44

IV. The Poles and Germany's World
Dream ....

V. Russia's European Door . *

VI. The Geographical Centre op Eu

ROPE ;. • • . •

VII. How Vienna Escaped the Turk

VIII. The Real " Thaddeus op Warsaw *

IX. On the Field op Glory .

X. The Mecca op the Poles .

XI. A Voyage Over the Steppes

XII. What Poland Owes to Her Women

13

70
99

123
138
153
181
192
207
221

14 CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

XIII. The Polish Peasant and the Future

of Poland 232

XIV. The Pathetic Outcast of the Ages . 248

XV. Polish Music and the Slav Tempera-

ment 265

XVI. A Race of Artists by Bieth . . 274

XVII. The Geographer of the Heavens . 287

XVIII. Polish Country Life and Customs . 294

XIX. Poland's Modern Interpreter . .313

XX. The Poles in America * M . 326

Note on Pronunciation of Polish . 348

Index h . . m m m 355

ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

Nicholas Copernicus Title

The Sukiennice of Cracow ... 52

The Westminster Abbey of Poland . . 56
The Old Royal Palace in Warsaw . . 130
Palace in the Lazienki Park in Warsaw . 130
The Eeal " Thaddeus of Warsaw " . .156

The Kosciuszko Mound 178

"Matka Boska Czenstochowska " . .200

The Old Fort in Kamieniec . . . 214

Blessing the Harvest .... 234

Types of Polish Mountain Peasants . .236
The Peasant: the Hope of Poland . . 240
The Religion of the Peasant Is His Life . 246
* The Pathetic Outcast of the Ages " . . 254
Polish Art and Artists . . . .272
" Deliver Us from Evil * . . . .278
Sienkiewicz, Poland's Modern Interpreter . 314
Map of Poland . ., . . . . 352

15

POLAND

THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

I

POLAND'S R6LE IN HISTORY

IN an age which is, beyond all else, material-
istic, what can better entitle a people to dis-
tinction and homage than the facts that it
worships the ideal, that its heroes are personifi-
cations of aspiration, and that its very faults are,
in large measure, directly traceable to "vision-
ary patriotism " and " artistic preoccupation "?
It is the glory of the Polish people to hold
aloft the torch of idealism in a materialistic age.
While many a western nation is going to war
over commerce; while the ears of the chancel-
leries are tuned to the tones of the stock-ticker,
and the ambitions of the day run to the men who
can amass the most gigantic fortunes, the Poles
lavish all their national affections on a living
word-master. In the national Sienkiewicz jubi-
lee a couple of years ago they did for a mere
creator of literature what the rest of the world
is wont to reserve for " Napoleons of finance " ;

17

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

for men who have defeated others with great
slaughter, and for colossuses who have moulded
empires out of the patrimony of other peoples.

For four centuries Poland was the bulwark of
Europe against the floods of barbarism from the
East. That mysterious, fecund East, from which
countless human hives have swarmed out over
Europe, gave out these swarms in myriad, piti-
less numbers, at frequent intervals from the 13th
to the 17th century. Impelled by some unex-
plainable ethnic force, the barbarian tribes
moved ever westward, until, on the banks of the
Dwina, the Dniester, and the Vistula, they met
the swords of the Poles. But for Polish valour,
Western civilisation would have been blighted ;
Christianity itself, perhaps, engulfed. Poland
was the sentinel who kept watch on the eastern
gate of Europe, while Latin civilisation, in the
person of France, flowered and taught the world.
" While my own dear France was the missionary
of civilisation," said Victor Hugo, " Poland was
its knight."

The eastern frontier of the Commonwealth
was, by its low, level, natural formation, partic-
ularly open to attack. Poland was essentially
a land of plains, which, for centuries, were swept
and desolated by vast, contending armies. Time
and again the Mongols completely overran the
Commonwealth. Twice these fierce nomads
rolled in great waves over the entire country, and

18

POLAND'S R6LE IN HISTORY

were checked only on the banks of the Vistula,
beneath the very walls of Cracow.

For this defence of Europe against the bar-
barism of the non-Christian East, Poland asked
no contributions of troops, or money. She asked
no thanks. The treatment she has actually re-
ceived from Europe is one of the crimes of the
ages.

Poland upheld the Christian faith when most
of the rest of Europe was sunk in petty wars and
struggles for greed. She received the poor Jew
when all the rest of the Christian world would
have none of him. Her bosom was a refuge for
the Hussites and emigrants of the Thirty Years'
War. She has always accepted this as her r61e
— to be the champion of the West against the
East ; of culture against barbarism. With a reli-
gion and civilisation based on those of Rome, and
a language strongly modified by Latin influences,
she has been the outpost of Occidentalism against
even the great mass of the Slav race itself, which
is cast in a Byzantine mould.

It must be admitted that this attitude was
more the result of an impulsive generosity than
the development of a conscious, logical will. It
was a great virtue, but a virtue, alas, singularly
favoured by the recklessness and love of glory
characteristic of the national spirit. This was
admitted in an eloquent memorial published by
the Poles of this country at the time of the con-

19

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

Tocation of the first Hague Peace Conference.
This document, however, rightly gloried in the
" improvident generosity " of Poland. It said :

" History proves that the Polish people were
not believers in force or the use of destructive
weapons to vindicate their rights. To the last
moment of their political existence they looked
with contempt upon all destructive weapons.
They prized individual courage much higher.
They attacked the enemy with sword in hand,
abhorring those who hid in trenches under the
protection of batteries. When the other nations
of Europe relied mainly upon powerful artil-
leries for the success of their troops, Poland,
too proud, and placing too high the honour of
the military calling, looked with disdain upon
those who were willing to kill and dared not
expose themselves. In view of the greed of the
neighbouring powers, this characteristic trait of
our nation did not redound to our advantage.
Nevertheless it existed, and was one of the
brightest features of our history."

Poland is, or rather was, a large and power-
ful nation with a territory greater than that
of modern Germany, and for nearly a century
her voice was authoritative in the councils of
the continent Take down the map of Europe.
Draw a line from Riga, on the Baltic Sea, to
Dresden in Saxony. Draw another line from
Dresden to the mouth of the Dniester River, on

20

POLAND'S R6LE IN HISTORY

the Black Sea; another from the mouth of the
Dniester to Smolensk, Russia, and a fourth
from Smolensk back to Riga. You have en-
closed the Commonwealth of Poland at its
greatest extent — the country of Sienkiewicz.
Before the partitions Posen, West Prussia,
Galicia, Lithuania, Volhynia, Podolia, and
Kiev were Polish. In still earlier times, Bes-
sarabia, Moldavia, Silesia, and Livonia belonged
to the Polish crown. Even as late as 1772 Dan-
zig (Gdansk) was a Polish seaport, and Kam-
ieniec (near the modern Kishinev) the Polish
defence against the Turks, while to the north
and west Poland's frontier extended almost to
the walls of Riga and to within the shadow of
the Kremlin at Moscow. To-day Poland is a
portion of three great European nations, Rus-
sia, Austria, arid Germany. She has long ceased
to have a separate political existence, but her
sons remain a distinct, individual and resistant
people.

No doubt the ultimate aim of Polish activity
everywhere is the re-establishment of Poland as
a national and political entity. The dream of
every Polish patriot is to see a Poland arise, on
the ashes of the past, stretching from the Baltic
to the Black Sea — a country 750 miles in length
and almost as much in width, comprising 400,-
000 square miles, and with a population of
thirty-five millions. This would embrace the

21

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

modern Polish provinces of Prussia, up to within
a short distance of Berlin, with half the Prussian
shore of the Baltic, Galicia in Austria, and the
whole of that portion of Russia which at one
time, some of it three hundred years ago, formed
a part of Poland at her greatest extent.

Like all Slav peoples, the Poles are extreme
in temperament. They are apt to be emotional,
over sentimental, perhaps. With them, there is
no mean in emotion, intellect, or society. They
love or hate. They are brilliant or slow. They
are nobles or peasants. Ancient Poland had
no middle class, no bourgeoisie, — except the
Jews — a class so necessary for the perpetuity of
a nation. It was in consequence of this inequal-
ity in the national character, and as a result
of certain fatal diplomatic mistakes, and a false
political method, that Poland was reduced to
a state of internal anarchy in the 18th century.
She then easily fell a prey to the three neigh-
bouring monarchies. Poland was an elective
kingdom, with almost all the civil rights in the
hands of some fifty or sixty thousand nobles.
The mass of the peasantry, numbering ten or
twelve millions, were excluded from all political
rights. With no middle class to fall back upon,
with more than one foreigner on the throne, and
with no sort of unity among themselves, what
could these sixty thousand nobles do against
the armies of their enemies?

22

POLAND'S R6LE IN HISTORY

For centuries Poland was known as a repub-
lic. In reality, the Polish state was a consti-
tutional monarchy, in an age when the rest of
Europe never even dreamed of constitutions.
There was great liberty in Poland, but liberty
jealously guarded by one single social class, the
nobility, for itself. Peasant and burgher were
thrown absolutely upon the mercy of the noble.
The strength and character of the army de-
pended on the vote of the Diet, which always
kept down the number of the national forces.
At the same time each magnate had his own
retinue, often more numerous than the national
army. Many such magnates opposed the King
with force of arms, and even conspired with
foreign powers to further their own selfish am-
bitions. This not only weakened the power of
the state against outside aggression: it also
produced a condition of internal anarchy which
almost invited the spoiler from without.

Every noble was virtually a king, under a
constitution surviving from feudalism. Each
had the right of liberum veto, that is, the right
to forbid, by his single vote, any measure in
the Diet. Each noble was a law unto himself,
and the country suffered. Sobieski, who had
saved Vienna for the Austrians, could not keep
Kiev and Little Russia for the Poles. " Poland
has no right to proclaim herself innocent of all
her calamities; she has herself contributed to

23

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

them ; she went to sleep upon a volcano ; she was
guilty of a marvellous inertia, of a frivolous im-
providence, of an incomprehensible torpidity."

The Poles tried to reform these -abuses by the
famous constitution of May 3, 1791. This his-
toric document admitted the citizens of the
towns to the representative body of the people,
ameliorated somewhat the condition of the peas-
antry, decided the question of succession by he-
redity, and provided for the creation of a stand-
ing army of regular troops. Although all this
came too late, and could not prevent the fall of
the Kingdom, it was the first thoroughly na-
tional movement in the history of Poland. It
did not come about by an oppressed class vio-
lently overturning society to obtain its rights.
It was the voluntary renunciation, from patri-
otic motives, of exclusive privileges by a power-
ful class of nobles. But it was then too late,
despite the heroism of Kosciuszko. One par-
tition had already been consummated. The two
others followed rapidly, the last King went as
a salaried functionary to St Petersburg, and
Poland was no more as an independent state.

While the partition of Poland cannot be jus-
tified by any possible standard of ethics, the
political downfall of the Polish Commonwealth
must be charged also against the Polish char-
acter. Since Sienkiewicz himself admits this,
an outsider may be pardoned for repeating it.

24

POLAND'S R6LE IN HISTORY

The Polish author makes one of his characters,
a typical Pole, say:

"We Slavs have too much of that restless
Aryan spirit, in consequence of which neither
our mind nor our heart has ever been perfect,
has ever been balanced. . . . And what
strange, peculiar natures ! The German students,
for instance, drink, and this is not, in any shape
or form, detrimental to their work, nor does
it prevent them from becoming sober, practical
men. But let a Slav acquire the habit, and he
will drink himself into an early grave. A Ger-
man will be a pessimist; will write volumes on
the subject whether life is or is not mere de-
spair, and will continue to drink beer, bring up
children, hoard money, water flowers, and sleep
under thick covers. Under similar circum-
stances, the Slav will hang himself, or throw
himself to the dogs, leading a wild life of dis-
sipation and license, and perish and choke in
the mire into which he voluntarily sank. In-
deed, ours are strange natures — sincere, sensi-
tive, sympathetic, and, at the same time, fraud-
ulent and actor-like."

Unity is not a Polish virtue. Neither is sub-
ordination for the common weal. Every one
must lead. There have always been plenty of
princes, marshals, and generals in Poland; of
obedient privates, very few. The term " a Polish
gentleman," in the words of a clever novel

25

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

writer, implies " so much of tact, versatility, vol-
atility, nobility, and futility."

Turn the shield and one becomes positively
exasperated at the Poles for permitting one
fault, the lack of one quality, to nullify almost
completely the rest of their magnificent heritage.
A record of gallantry and chivalry in war so
splendid and untarnished that the world knows
not its equal; an idealism and a subtle grasp
of the fundamentals of the human heart, with
all its actions and desire, that has made them
such wonderful artists in tone and colour; a
keen, brilliant, intellectual versatility; a bound-
less hospitality and courtesy; beautiful, fasci-
nating family and social life; a sympathetic,
poetic responsiveness that makes them irresist-
ible; all these the Poles have to-day and in like
measure as in the days of the Sienkiewicz heroes,
when, before Zbaraz, the gallant Podbipienta
yielded up his soul " as an offering to the Queen
of Heaven," and as when Kmicic performed his
prodigies of valour to win Olenkn.

The impatience of necessary restraint and
fatal lack of cohesion between classes that has
marked the suicidal policy of so many Polish
campaigns in the past, has, to a certain extent,
however, been conquered to-day. The patience
and self-restraint of the Poles during the Rus-
sian social and political crises has been really
remarkable. Race consciousness, religion, and

26

POLAND'S R6LE IN HISTORY

strenuous modern competition are mighty im-
pelling and controlling forces. When fostered
and directed by such an organisation as the
Catholic church, there is scarcely a limit to what
racial impulse will do for a people. To the Poles
it is bringing not only cohesion and even the
spirit of self-sacrifice for the common good, but
an indomitable earnestness in perfecting them-
selves for the struggle of modern life. It has
enabled them to preserve, and even intensify,
their native strength and charm and at the
same time to add a touch of Anglo-Saxon prac-
ticality. In industry, in agriculture, in the arts
and sciences, in education, in wealth and num-
bers the Poles are progressing. It is impossible
to kill a people that has a will to live. The
commercial spirit has touched them, and they
have adapted themselves to it as one more
weapon wherewith to preserve their sense of ra-
cial unity and improve their condition and pros-
pects. A strong middle class is developing
among them. Up to about twenty-five years ago
the small middle class to be met with in Polish
towns and cities was composed almost wholly of
Germans and Jews. To-day the young and well-
educated generation of Poles have largely re-
placed them. Polish merchants, bankers, shop-
keepers, mechanics, artisans, physicians, law-
yers, and engineers are now in the majority.
In the words of a famous Polish historian : " In

27

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

1800 we prayed to be allowed to live. In 1900
we know that we shall live."

The chief reason alleged for the dismember-
ment of Poland by the three adjoining empires
was that the ruling classes in those empires
feared to have so near them the influence of a
national unit so democratic as Poland. Now
conditions are changed. The times point to a
considerable democratising of Russia, Germany,
and Austria. The democratic influences, how-
ever, that the despotisms sought to avoid by the
dismemberment of Poland have, after all, per-
meated their peoples from French, British, and
American as well as Polish sources. The old
object for partitioning Poland is no more. In
fact, dismembered Poland presents much more
of a problem than independent Poland possibly
could, on account of its revolutionary propa-
ganda. Not merely in the present Russian rev-
olution, but in the entire European revolution-
ary movement has Poland a leading part to play.
Her role with regard not only to Russia, Ger-
many, and Austria, but also with regard to all
Europe, is no more a thing of the past. The
proletariat of all Russia has become the cham-
pion of the revolutionary struggle of Europe,
and Poland has become the natural intermediary
between the East and the West.

There is a beautiful legend current among
the mountain peasants of the Carpathians. One

28

POLAND'S R6LE IN HISTORY

of the Polish poets has put it into verse and it
has been played on the stage. Many, many years
ago — so runs the legend — the King (meaning the
King of the Poles), seeing that the all-mother
(Poland) was grievously ill, consulted with
the doctors, but all to no purpose. A cer-
tain prophetess, however, declared that three
brothers, to each of whom she gave a portion
of a flute, must travel together over seven moun-
tains and seven rivers, until they came to a cer-
tain peak in the Carpathians. Then they must
put the pieces together and blow. In response,
King Boleslaw, surnamed the Brave, and his ar-
moured knights would wake from their sleep;
would once more come forth to conquer, and the
land would be restored to its ancient splendour.
But the brothers could not agree upon the one
to blow the flute. Each thought himself entitled
to that honour. So the cure was not effected;
and so the knights sleep on.

The legend is symbolic of Polish character
and history, and the playwright so represents it
on the stage. The three brothers are Aristoc-
racy, Bourgeoisie, and Peasantry. When these
three come together in perfect accord, — when
the national character rings as pure melody as
the music of Poland's artists, — then, from the
fastnesses of the Carpathians will arise King
Boleslaw, and his knights, and Poland will once
more be an independent nation.

29

II

POLISH AUTONOMY— UNDER AUSTRIA

THE " Polish Question " is the political and
economic problem presented by the oppo-
sition of two apparently irreconcilable
facts. Three of the great powers of Europe be-
lieve it necessary for their national existence as
world states to keep in subjection, without na-
tional rights, twenty-five millions of a highly
sensitive, highly cultured, patriotic race, whirli
refuses to be assimilated and which is increasing
more rapidly than the dominant nations. The
problem concerns all Europe. It is of vital im-
portance to Russia, Germany, and Austria.

How does injustice to the Poles affect the na-
tional aims and complicate the national prob-
lems of Russia, of Germany, of Austria?

If Polish nationality is ever again triumphant,
the triumph will come, not through the efforts
of the Poles, but out of the necessity and peril
of their oppressors. The Poles have learned by
the bitterest and most terrible of experiences
that, unaided, they are not strong enough to re-
gain their lost independence, and that they can-
not hope for foreign intervention. The ascend-

30

POLISH AUTONOMY— UNDER AUSTRIA

ancy of materialism and political " expediency "
is too complete to-day for any nation or nations
to assume the r61e of liberator of Poland. But
Russia, Prussia, and Austria, it is easily con-
ceivable, may be forced, by pressure of problems
more vital to their own nationalities, to loosen
their grip on their prey.

The Poles are grateful to Austria, not for
what she has done, but for what she has re-
frained from doing. Galicia (Austrian Poland)
is to-day the only portion of the old Common-
wealth in which Poles can breathe freely, think
and speak in their own tongue, and develop them-
selves. It is true that Austria was one of the
partitioning powers. But Poles will not forget
that Austria, under Maria Theresa, was the only
one of the three which hesitated before yielding
to the political pressure which resulted in the
dismemberment.

Compared with the position of their brethren
in Russia and Prussia, the lot of the Austrian
Poles to-day is certainly an easy one. Their
status is entirely different from that under
which both the " Kingdom " and Posen are made
to " lie quiet." The Galician Poles are not op-
pressed at all. They have autonomy, they are
not molested in the use of their language, they
publish their newspapers without let or hin-
drance, they have their representatives in the
national Reichsrath, and one of them (Count

31

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

Badeni) has even been Premier of the entire
Empire, while another (Count Goluchowski)
was for a decade imperial foreign minister.
Warsaw shopkeepers are compelled to hire at
least one Russian clerk, but Austria does not
pursue a like policy in Galicia. Nor does she
interfere with Polish schools, or refuse to for-
ward letters bearing Polish titles, as is done in
Posen by Prussia. There are no overt acts in
Galicia by the Austrian government toward
making life hard for the Poles (at any rate,
if there are, it takes a long sojourn in the coun-
try to notice them). Russia and Prussia do not
officially recognise the existence of the Poles.
There are, in Russia, inhabitants of the govern-
ments of the Vistula who were formerly Polish.
There are German subjects in the East Mark
of Prussia who happen to prefer to speak the
Polish language. Austria, however, does not
thus wilfully shut her eyes to the painfully
evident truth. She frankly admits that the
Poles are not Austrians, not Germans, but Poles,
wholly, irreclaimably, often resentfully, Poles.
She permits them to sell openly all kinds of
books, for and against the Austrian government,
or any other existing or conceivable form of gov-
ernment. The court at Vienna does not claim
that Kosciuszko was an Austrian, as Prussia
claims Copernicus. She admits that he was a
Pole of the Poles. She does not forbid monu-

32

POLISH AUTONOMY— UNDER AUSTRIA

ments being erected to him, nor tear down those
already erected. The Viennese idea is of the eco-
nomical order. The Austrians use the Kosciuszko
memorial in Cracow as a military garrison. On
the whole, however, the Poles have a good deal of
sympathy politically for the Hapsburg Empire,
and a real affection for the person of the aged
Austrian Kaiser.

Commercially, Austrian Poland has little for
which to thank Vienna. Galicia, a province
containing 30,000 square miles (it is about the
size of the State of South Carolina), with a pop-
ulation of eight millions, and a provincial gov-
ernment of her own, is yet very backward eco-
nomically. Galicia is miserably poor, thanks
to the exhaustion of generations of war which
the present system of taxation does not improve.
There is another cause for her poverty, in the
natural antipathy of the race of landed propri-
etors to trade and industry. This prejudice is,
however, fast dying out. Nature has endowed
Galicia with a rich, fertile soil and a fair share
of mineral wealth. The country is pleasantly
diversified, from the level plain region about
Cracow and Lemberg even to the summits of
the Carpathians. All kinds of grain and veg-
etables grow magnificently. As the country dips
and then rises again to the foothills of the Car-
pathians, traces of iron and copper appear, and
westward, in the region of Schodnica, are to be

33

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

found the richest naphtha wells in the world.
The province also has generous supplies of salt.
The famous old salt mines of Wieliczka, a few
miles from Cracow, have been worked for nearly
800 years, and still yield abundantly. But salt
is a government monopoly in Austria, and the
Galicians have to pay, in consequence, about six
times as much for it as we do in America.

Business is not good in Galicia. Everything
is taxed to the breaking point. New enterprises
must pay such enormous assessments for the
privilege of beginning that their future for a
dozen years is often mortgaged before they begin.
As for the taxes on many of the estates, it is as
much as the poor proprietor can do to satisfy
the government and at the same time provide
himself with the necessaries of life. At one time
the Poles were the most extravagant and osten-
tatious people in Europe. Now they are even
frugal, simple, and saving. Perhaps they will
some day thank Austria for teaching them the
lesson of frugality, just as they are beginning
to recognise the benefits of the rigorous but or-
derly regime of Prussia.

The Prussian Pole has benefited to a certain
extent by the progressive commercial policy of
the German government, and so also, though to
a less extent, has the Russian Pole from Rus-
sia. But the Pole in Austria has not had this
stimulus, and he is still a good deal wedded to

34

POLISH AUTONOMY— UNDER AUSTRIA

his old-fashioned ideas of the degrading nature
of trade and work in general ; that is, work other
than on an estate. He labours hard enough on
his farm to satisfy even the American notion of
work, but that is because he must. All his his-
tory shows this distaste for commerce. From
the early Middle Ages, so Voltaire tells us, al-
most all the commerce and trade of Poland was
in the hands of Scotchmen, Germans, and Jews.
The great natural wealth of the country and the
constant and immense stream of plunder coming
in from the generations of usually successful
war built up an enormously rich class of landed
proprietors whose pride and luxuriousness was
long the envy and wonder of the rest of Europe.
Naturally such a wealthy class soon learned to
regard traffic and work in general with contempt
and as only fit for peasants and slaves. It is
more than the aristocrats can stand even to-day
to barter and sell goods. Anything, even pov-
erty and actual want, is preferable to trade, and
what at first seems utterly inexplicable to an
American, soon becomes perfectly intelligible
when the history of Poland is studied sociologic-
ally.

Besides this deeply ingrained prejudice, it
must not be forgotten that the Pole has had but
little training for business and is generally no
match for the Jew with his natural cunning for
barter, or the German, who has had the benefit

35

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

of a commercial education and who often has the
business aptitude in his blood. Much of the
trade in the large cities of Galicia is in the
hands of Germans or of Poles with German
names, Poles in spirit it is true, but coming by
their commercial proclivities from their foreign
ancestry. This can be seen by walking through
the principal streets in Cracow and Lemberg
and noting the names on the signs. The younger
generation of Poles in Galicia is indeed begin-
ning to look at this matter in a new light and
is going into business in increasing numbers.
If they were only permitted liberty of initiative
and freed from some of the ruinous taxation
which now grinds them down, they would suc-
ceed to-day.

Yet, withal, the Galician Pole seems fairly
contented. He tills his land in patience (a qual-
ity he is beginning to show to a degree which
would have considerably astonished his fiery and
unruly ancestor), sells some of his farm produce,
and hopes. He is beginning to look almost long-
ingly toward Russia, where, despite political
oppression, a fairly liberal commercial policy
makes life offer new and attractive possibilities.

The Poles form but one of the many diverse
elements — although an important one — in that
geographical expression which we know as Aus-
tria. What a mosaic is the Hapsburg Empire-
Kingdom! The traveller through this land sees

36

POLISH AUTONOMY— UNDER AUSTRIA

so much diversity of tongue and religion in a
ride of a few hours that he is bewildered.

Four persons shared the railway carriage with
me on the train from Vienna to Cracow, a lady
and three gentlemen. A stout, dignified look-
ing man with olive complexion and black hair
that almost curled, sat directly opposite. He
wore ordinary dress except that his modern suit
was covered by a splendid cloak drawn partly
together with a gorgeous sash. A Magyar mag-
nate, but, as political geography goes, an Aus-
trian subject. Next him sat the lady, whose
delicately chiselled Latin features and general
slender brunette type were very southern, quite
Italian. No, she was Istrian — and Austrian.
At her side was a powerfully built man with a
haughty patrician face, small nose, and a great
thick neck — the type of which Napoleon said,
" Put him on a horse and you have a devil." A
Pole, yes, but officially an Austrian. Next to me
and opposite these three sat a little slim lieu-
tenant with an air of suave dignity about him.
A real Austrian, an Austrian of the Austrians,
who said " Bitte pardon " or " Bitte schon " on
every possible occasion, with a soft accent such
as no one but a Viennese can master. At a
small station near the famous field of Auster-
litz a sixth passenger entered and made our
coupe "complet." He was a "jager." The
knee-breeches, mountain hat with jaunty feather

37

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

in it, and the breezy honest politeness, all plainly
said Tyrol. Yes, but an Austrian. As the guard
ran along banging closed the doors of the car-
riages, I caught a glimpse of a party being hus-
tled into a third-class compartment. They were
mostly women, and evidently peasants in holi-
day attire. The gaily decorated bodice, large
hat, wide flaring short skirt on the muscular
frame, the clumsy top boots with dainty French
heels, indicated Moravian peasants, — but Aus-
trians. The train glided out of the station and
there was a snap-shot view of a big fellow in
white kilts and red tunic, wearing a fez. A
Turk? Very nearly. He comes from the bor-
ders of Dalmatia — and is an Austrian. If only
a Czech, a Croat, a Slovak, and a Jew had been
present, I might have received an idea of the
heterogeneous population that owes allegiance
to Kaiser Franz Joseph and calls itself Aus-
trian.

There is no Austrian language, no Austrian
literature or patriotism or nationality, nothing
the congeries of races have in common except
the Emperor, the army, and the Reichsrath.
What will happen when the object of their per-
sonal allegiance has passed away? The empire
of the Hapsburgs is the keystone of the European
arch, and the continent dreads few things so
much as its displacement. Eighteen million
Hungarians, nine and one-half million Germans,

38

POLISH AUTONOMY— UNDER AUSTRIA

eight million Poles and Ruthenians, six million
Czechs, two or three million Servians, Croats,
and Slovenians, about a million Italians, and
nearly a million Jews — with as many tongues
and religions as there are nationalities — if not
more — what a marvellous but artificial struc-
ture it is!

In the matter of religion, also, the Dual Mon-
archy is a mosaic. In the first place, it is the
greatest Roman Catholic power in the world.
By its constitution, the ruling dynasty must
profess the Catholic faith. Vast property is in
the ecclesiastical hand, and the church enjoys
cordial recognition from the government. Pri-
mate and priest are among the largest landed
proprietors. Along the banks of the Danube the
greater part of the soil is owned by the church.
The Archbishop of Grau, who is Primate of Hun-
gary, has an annual income of 1,000,000 florins,
or more than $400,000; enough to support eight
such mighty individuals as the American Presi-
dent. About two per cent, of all the territory in
Hungary belongs to the church. Every year at
Easter " His Apostolic Majesty," as the Emperor
is called, and his Empress wash the feet of poor
beggars.

Austria is not all Catholic, however, nor was
she always a Catholic country. John Huss and
Jerome of Prague were, in the geographical
sense, Austrians; and Moravia, which is a word

39

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

almost synonymous with Protestantism, is in
Austria. Transylvania, of which Hungary is
suzerain, is to-day perhaps the most remark-
able conglomeration of religions known to
history. Jew, Armenian, Russo-Greek, Latin-
Greek, Nazarene, Roman Catholic, Lutheran,
Calvinist, and Uniate have dwelt there in close
proximity for centuries, but seldom in Christian
harmony.

For hundreds of years the many different
races of the Empire have jostled and fought, and
yet they have never mingled. Each has lived
its own life and made its own history, jealous
of its national individuality. While in Buda-
pest I spoke to a Hungarian gentleman about
the differences between the Magyars and their
Emperor. But he replied decidedly, giving the
keynote to the racial independence: " Es gicbt
keinen Kaiser in Budapest, nur einen K6ni</ von
Ungam."

What would happen if the Empire should fall
to pieces? Europe has not forgotten the one
war over the Austrian succession, and fears that
the death of the present Kaiser, loved and re-
spected as he is throughout the continent, would
precipitate the great European conflict which
is the nightmare of all the chancelleries. Eu-
rope feels that, in the word of a Czech states-
man, " if Austria did not exist, she would have
to be invented," in view of the political necessity

40

POLISH AUTONOMY— UNDER AUSTRIA

for a strong grip on the jarring nationalities of
the " central European lumber room."

It follows as a corollary of her geographical
position and her ethnological composition, that
the Dual Monarchy desires nothing so much as
to maintain the political status quo in central
Europe. Any change in southeastern Europe
is likely to disturb the internal equilibrium.
Hence the anxiety with which Vienna watches
developments in the Balkans and Turkey, and
shudders at the possibility of Hungarian defec-
tion or Bohemian linguistic patriotism unset-
tling the balance of power within her borders
and thus weakening the hold of the imperial
capital. Put concretely, the two great spectres
which haunt the dreams of the aged Austrian
Kaiser are Pan-Slavism and Pan-Germanism.
Russian propaganda in the Balkans and Ger-
man influence in Austria proper must be
watched continually, and these are the factors
in Austria's foreign policy. Both of these fac-
tors are growing more impressive and signifi-
cant. Muscovite intrigue precipitates Bulgaria
and Servia into a customs union which threat-
ens to destroy completely Austrian para-
mountcy in the Balkans. As for the influence
of Germanism, the road to Constantinople long
ago ceased to travel through Vienna. It now
goes by way of Berlin.

There is one factor, however, in her national
41

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

life which Austria apparently slights or the im-
portance of which she minimises, and that is
her relation to the section of the ancient Polish
Commonwealth, which is now a portion of the
Dual Monarchy. Having a large amount of
freedom and local self-government, the Austrian
Poles are not the constant thorn in the flesh that
their brethren are in Russia and Prussia. But
as far as assimilation is concerned they are just
as irreconcilable. No prescription has yet been
offered, nor is any likely to be, for making a Rus-
sian, a German, or an Austrian out of a Pole.

The Poles of Galicia are more than half the
population of that province, and their represent-
atives in the Reichsrath at Vienna form the larg-
est, best organised, and most influential group
in that body. They hold the balance of power:
with their eighty votes (1907) they are the
determining party, and their views, in conse-
quence, cannot be wholly disregarded by the
Austrian government. On the subject of the
treatment of their compatriots by Prussia they
hold very strong views. They are satisfied with
their own condition, and they see in it a proof
that it is perfectly possible so to govern the Poles
as not to keep them seething in discontent. The
only way in which they can give effect to this
feeling is to press upon their government the
duty of making occasional representations to
Germany in favor of the Polish subjects of that

43

POLISH AUTONOMY— UNDER AUSTRIA

empire. This they are constantly trying to do,
and at times they succeed in placing Emperor
Francis Joseph in something of a quandary.
He cannot well offend his ally by mentioning
the matter, and he cannot afford altogether to
alienate the parliamentary support of the Gali-
cian Poles. Nor is this all. The Austrian gov-
ernment, as such, is not anxious to take sides
in the undying conflict between Teuton and
Slav, which has begun, of late years, to assume
such grave proportions.

Few travellers can resist the charm of Vienna.
Is there, in any other city in the world, such
a happy combination of German solidity, with
French chic, Teutonic warmth and thoroughness
without a bit of Prussian arrogance, Gallic lithe-
ness and taste, but not a trace of the staccato
pertness of the Frenchman, all welded into a
delightful whole by a cement of quiet good taste
and picturesque abandon which is distinctly
Viennese? It is the polite art-loving capital
of a courteous, artistic people.

The charming capital on the Danube, how-
ever, has a short memory. She has found it too
easy to forget that, but for a certain chivalrous,
art-loving, whole-souled, and warrior Polish
king, she might even now be only the "head
town " of a Turkish vilayet. What would Vienna
be to-day but for John Sobieski?

43

Ill

CRACOW: THE HEART OF POLAND

LEGEND has it that Lech, the mythical
founder of the Polish people, was once
attacked in his cradle by a three-headed
dragon. The cradle of Lech was Cracow, and
Cracow was the last resting-place of Polish inde-
pendence. The free city and republic of Cracow
lived till 1846, and was the last rallying point
of Polish national existence. Here the three-
headed dragon, or the three partitioning nations,
descended for the last attack on prostrate Po-
land. Cracow, therefore, is, for the best of rea-
sons, the point from which to begin a study of
Polish life as it is found to-day.

Cracow is the most characteristically Polish
city of the present The visitor will find more
life and progress in Warsaw, but life of a cos-
mopolitan, European kind. The traveller who
wishes to see a real Polish city must see and
study Cracow. This city is, undoubtedly, the
real centre of the Polish nation, the point toward
which the affection of the Poles turns as the
most dignified, precious memento of their past
glory.

44

CRACOW: THE HEART OF POLAND

My first impressions of this quaint old Polish
city were received under very characteristic and
fortunate circumstances. The University of
Cracow was about to celebrate the 500th anni-
versary of its foundation. Was it not Matthew
Arnold who, in speaking of the 500th anniver-
sary of Oxford, remarked that a university does
not come of age till it has attained its demi-mil-
lennium?

The coming of age of the Polish seat of learn-
ing at Cracow gave the Poles an opportunity
such as they have seldom had during the century
just closed, an opportunity for showing to the
world the love and mastery of picturesqueness,
symbolism, hospitality, ceremony, and good
cheer which is so characteristic of them as a
people.

The University of Cracow is a monument to
the statesmanship and liberality of the early
Polish kings. In the latter half of the four-
teenth century — in 1364, to be precise — Kazi-
mierz the Great decided to commemorate his ac-
cession to the thrones of Poland and Lithuania
by founding a library. This he endowed with all
the magnificence and generosity of his age and
line, and it soon became the centre of Polish
culture. In two decades it had evolved a uni-
versity, and had become the intellectual point
d'appui of the kingdom. For a few years, owing
to religious wars, the university was forced to

45

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

close its doors. In the Christmas season of 1400,
however, Jagiello, founder of his house, re-en-
dowed and reorganised the institution, and
from that day to this its work has never lapsed.

The occasion of the celebration of its 500th
birthday was a national event with the Poles,
and the national pride came out strongly in the
reception of visiting delegations from institu-
tions all over the world. Impressive exercises,
speeches, processions, and the presentation of
gifts and souvenirs from sister universities,
made up the celebration. The American dele-
gation of professors commissioned the writer to
lay on the tomb of Tadeusz (Thaddeus) Koscius-
zko a wreath, as a token of grateful remembrance
from America.

On that memorable Sunday morning in June
the sun shone brightly, and the pious peasant
trudged to church to the sound of the solemn
bell. Far down in the cathedral crypt, in the
Wawel — the Westminster Abbey of Poland — by
the fitful, subdued light of lanterns the writer
reverently made his way through the aisles of
sarcophagi in which slumber all of Poland's
great dead. There lie Jagiello, Jadwiga, Kazi-
mierz the Great, Zygmunt the Great, Stefan Bat-
ory, John Sobieski, anl Joseph Poniatowski.
By the side of the sarcophagus of the great So-
bieski is a massive stone coffin in which lies all
that was once mortal of Tadeusz Kosciuszko. Al-

46

CRACOW: THE HEART OF POLAND

most religously laying the bit of laurel, with
the inscription, " In the name of America, to
the memory of Kosciuszko," on the pile of cold
stone, I withdrew.

The Poles owe the careers and great achieve-
ments of many of their foremost men to the
venerable Jagiellonian University. One of its
graduates — " the most illustrious in half a thou-
sand years" — belongs to the world. Nicholas
Copernicus, when quite a youth, spent three
years at the University, and it seemed fitting
that the celebration should have been closed by
the unveiling of a monument to the great mathe-
matician and cosmographer.

Cracow is a sort of " half-way house " between
Vienna and Warsaw. Commercially, it depends
on the former; politically (speaking from a Po-
lish standpoint), on the latter. As long as the
railroad connects Warsaw, Cracow, and Posen,
Polish national life will not cease to be. In
the military scheme of the Austrian Empire
Cracow is a very important place. Within easy
driving distance of the Russian frontier, this
former capital and royal residence of Poland's
kings has become one of the chief Austrian
strongholds. The empire of the Hapsburgs has
made it one of the strongest outposts of the re-
ceding Teutonic power before the advance of
the Slav.

A denationalised people will always cling
47

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

fondly to the past, and its monuments of former
glories will constitute its chief claim to the in-
terest of the rest of the world. With no polit-
ical or military life of their own to-day, except as
parts of the nations which hold them subject,
the Poles point with most pride to the evidences
of their former greatness. The traveller will be
charmed by the hospitality and sympathetic
character of the people themselves, and the stu-
dent will be thrilled by the tragic interest of the
drama of denationalisation which is still being
enacted. Aside from her artists, musicians,
and writers, the great things of Poland are
chiefly those that have already had their day
and their history. Cracow actually lives in the
traditions of her great past. With 90,000 inhab-
itants and many of the artistic, social and polit-
ical characteristics of modern Europe, she is
essentially a city of the past. An air of delight-
fully picturesque somnolence hangs over her
streets, even in the business quarter. Antiquity
and historical recollections — these are the dis-
tinctions of Cracow. They are her boast. How
old these Poles are! Speak of your material
progress, and the Cracovian replies that he has
real, unadulterated antiquity. When you come
to Cracow they show you the Wawel, the ancient
fortress-castle, where, for 600 years and more,
have slumbered the greatest of Poland's great
dead. Through the court-yard, where many a

48

CRACOW: THE HEART OF POLAND

tournament and joust has been held in splendour,
the passing centuries have seen Bohemian, Prus-
sian, Mongol, Swede, Tartar, Russian, and Aus-
trian ride, rough-shod, in triumph, over a proud
and sensitive prostrate nation, laden with spoil
so rich that the mere description sounds like
romance.

Cracow was the second capital of the Polish
kings. About the year 560 A. D., say the leg-
ends, in the Carpathian Mountains there lived
a petty chief or " leader of the province " named
Krakus. He was a strong man and well be-
loved. On the hill Wawel he built a fortress,
now known as the Wawel, overlooking the River
Vistula. This was a great task, as he had first
to kill the dragon which dwelt on the hill. The
cavern in which this Polish St. George met his
foe is still pointed out to the visitor. At present,
however, the entrance is closed with an iron
trap door, heavily padlocked, and no one (for
what reason it is not stated) is permitted to
view the interior. Perhaps closer inspection
might tend to lessen the belief in the old legend ;
we moderns are so sceptical.

But to return to Krakus. We are told that
his rule was wise and good, and that when he
died there was general mourning. His daugh-
ter Wanda was elected " over lady." Now,
Wanda was very beautiful, and this fact soon
made trouble for her and Poland. Before long

49

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

her beauty attracted the attention of a German
prince named Rytyger, who fell in love with her
and began violent suit for her hand. Wanda,
however, did not return his affection and
promptly refused him. The gallant lover wrote
her an angry letter, threatening to invade her
domain and make her his wife by force. But
Wanda was not of the submissive kind. She
gathered a great army and marched out and de-
feated the Germans with great slaughter. Then,
fearing that her beauty might cause further trou-
ble to her country, tradition tells us that she
deliberately drowned herself in the Vistula. I
will not vouch for the truth of this story, but
I have seen the kopiec, or mound, which has
been erected to her memory.

Stormy times, pagan wars, and long stretches
of obscure history follow. Polish history turns
to the north, to Gniezno (Gnesen), where be-
gan the dynasty of Piasts, of legendary origin,
which gave so many kings to Poland. From this
time until the beginning of the last century
Cracow had as stormy a history as is ascribed to
any European city. Four times it was in the
hands of a foreign invader. For three centuries
it was the capital of Poland, and the kings were
crowned there until 1764. When Poland WM
first dismembered Cracow fell to Austria, to be
appropriated later by Napoleon, and then by
Alexander of Russia. The congress of Vienna

50

CRACOW: THE HEART OF POLAND

declared it " for ever a free, independent, and
neutral city, under the protection of Russia,
Austria, and Prussia." " For ever " was the way
it read in the treaty. Thirty-one brief years,
however, was the length of the republic's life.
The social ferment of the middle of the past cen-
tury, culminating in the " terrible '48," began in
Cracow in the summer of 1846. As a pretext for
extinguishing a free commonwealth, what was
easier for the emissaries of absolutism than to
incite the peasants to revolt against " the op-
pression of the aristocracy"? The insurrection
spread over all Galicia. The privileged classes
could remember the French Revolution, and to-
day the aristocrats do not like to be reminded of
this terrible summer, more than sixty years ago,
when whole families died on their estates at the
hands of peasants carrying scythes. Of course,
this was not the proper way for a free common-
wealth to behave, and the three powers directly
concerned insisted on a " friendly meeting " at
Vienna, at which they decided to incorporate the
" Free State " of Cracow with the Austrian
Empire.

As with most European cities that date back
more than a century, the radiating point, the
central square of Cracow, is the market-place, or
rynek, as the Poles call it, a picturesque old place,
with the church of Panna Marya (Virgin Mary)
on one side, the Cloth Hall, or Sukiennice, in the

51

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

centre, flanked by the ancient City Hall, the
chapel of St. Wojciech, and the noble monument
to the poet Mickiewicz. Every Tuesday and
Friday, from time immemorial, the venders
of produce of all sorts have gathered on the
rynek.

The open market is a very pretty sight. The
variety offered and the picturesqueness of the
trade is very interesting. Here, the gaily dressed
peasant woman brings her wares: chickens and
ducks, alive and remonstrating volubly, vegeta-
bles, fruits, bread, small cakes, poziomki (wild
strawberries), and knickknacks of every imag-
inable kind. Here, also, may be seen the gar-
dener or factor of the landed estate, selling his
fruit and vegetables to help out the revenue of
the proprietor.

The favourite spot for the exhibition of these
wares seems to be in front of the ancient castle
of the Potockis, known as Pod Baranami, " Un-
der the Rams' Heads." When the Emperor visits
Cracow he usually stays at this castle, having
first informed the family that they may leave,
although occasionally, during his stay, he gra-
ciously invites them to dinner.

The cabmen love to congregate before the little
chapel of St. Wojciech, where, tradition has it,
the Czech missionaries first preached the Gospel
to the then heathen Poles. From this spot the
cabbies can gaze reverently at the stone tablet

52

CRACOW: THE HEART OF POLAND

which is set in the square near by, declaring that
here, on March 24, 1794, Kosciuszko took the
oath as commander of the Polish army, before
that memorable campaign against the Russians
— the famous campaign of Raclawice.

In the very centre of the rynek is the Sukien-
nice, the most impressive and perhaps the most
interesting building in the city. In the early
Middle Ages this now ancient edifice began its
career as Cloth Hall, or place of exhibition for
merchandise, principally dress-stuffs, hence its
name.

The Sukiennice is now used as a gallery for
the exhibition of paintings, a reception hall,
and a museum. A long arcade, fitted up as a
market and panelled at regular intervals with the
different national and local Polish coats of arms,
pierces the building and gives it a very pictur-
esque and busy air.

Outside, except on market days, the old square
suns itself in dignified repose, the quiet broken
only by an unusually expeditious cabman, or by
the deep-toned bell from the tower of Panna
Marya. Every hour the clear musical note of
the hejnal comes from the church tower. I have
taken down the notes of this trumpet call, which
is regularly sounded from the three corners of
the tower of Panna Marya, but there is no in-
strument which can fully reproduce its liquid
melody. The " colour " of the notes seems just

53

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

between that of the cornet and that of the mili-
tary bugle.

kf, %jJWJ3jJ]Jf^^

Cracow is a grey city. The buildings are quite
generally of that soft, artistic grey tint which
improves with age in the stone or stucco so com-
mon in old European cities. Cracow reminds
one of a well-bred woman who has begun to age
and to grow grey. It is not the greyness of de-
crepitude, but of well-seasoned middle age. Cra-
cow has seen so much of life that she knows its
varied experiences thoroughly. In her youth
her sons went forth to the Crusades. In the 14th
century her people numbered nearly half a mil-
lion. She was full grown when the Thirty
Years' War broke out. She was developed, cul-
tured, and civilised long before the three-headed
dragon appeared, and she is weary of waiting for
her rather uncouth neighbours to catch up with
her intellectually, socially, and in almost all
the other arts of civilisation — the politer arts.
She has seen so much of strenuous life that she
is no longer surprised at anything. An air of
well-bred ease and nonchalance sits gracefully
on her. Even modern newspapers and the slowly
widening circle of " families in trade " cannot
conceal this air. Moreover, she has acquired all

54

CRACOW: THE HEART OF POLAND

the arts of the mature coquette, the coquette who
is better educated than her neighbours, who has
some idle time on her hands, and who makes
sport, quietly, of her associates. One can almost
fancy that, at times, he detects her yawning be-
hind her fan. She is very diplomatic, with a
finesse all her own. It must be confessed that
she has many of the symptoms of a civilisation
just a bit effete. With her societies, her card-
playing parties, her ennui, her little contests for
social pre-eminence — in these she is irreproach-
ably fin (or commencement) de siecle.

Cracow is not married to the material, indus-
trial present, but she is betrothed to it. Her
engagement ring is the beautifully modern boule-
vard extending all around the city limits, known
as the Plante. Some years ago a wealthy gentle-
man had municipal pride enough to found this
beautiful adornment to the city. There are
other parks in the city, notably the beautiful
Jordan Park. The Plants, however, is unique.
A delightful, shaded walk, bordered with flower-
beds kept in the pink of condition, it affords
the Cracovian an hour's promenade, in the course
of which he can pass before almost all the fea-
tures of the city of which he is proud. The new
university, the new home of the Society of Fine
Arts, many handsome residences, and several of
the public buildings face on the Plants, which
is the favourite promenade ground of the whole

55

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

town. Here may be seen every grade and class
of life out on a holiday. All Cracow and his
wife, or sweetheart, are here. Slim, straight,
olive-complexioned Austrian army officers, the
politest military men in the world, but positively
radiating their own importance many feet before
them ; common soldiers in the eminently practical
but scarcely handsome Austrian uniform, slouch-
ing along by the side of their kitchen-maid sweet-
hearts; stooped, reverend university professors
and earnest-looking students; Jews in long gaber-
dines, talking mongrel Polish in high, nasal
tones, and lovingly anointing their corkscrew
curls — you may see them all on almost any fine
afternoon. The Plants encircles the city outside
the old fortifications, and it is an interesting and
delightful contrast that is experienced when one
steps from this modern boulevard into the sally-
port of one of the ancient gates, such as the
Brama Floryanska (Florian gate), and, after
passing the shrine, with its ever-burning lamp,
emerges again into the open air in the old city
itself.

The stone in this engagement ring of Cracow is
not modern. It is the heart of Poland, its in-
nermost shrine, the Wawel. But here the co-
quette simile must be stopped. It would seem
a bit flippant when referring to the ancient,
hoary, revered Wawel.

The Wawel is a collection of buildings, really
66

CRACOW: THE HEART OF POLAND

a small fortified city — cathedral, chapels, bar-
racks, dwelling-houses, and court-yards — all sur-
rounded by a high wall, flanked at the corners
by towers. It was, indeed, a fortress independ-
ent of the city about it. The Vistula rolls
peacefully at its feet.

The chief interest attaching to the Wawel lies
in the fact that, in the crypt of its cathedral, are
buried most of the monarchs of Poland. Though
for many years ruin and neglect was the fate of
the Wawel, the ancient pile is now being restored.
The government at Vienna has consented to re-
move the arsenal and barracks if the city will
build other quarters for the troops. This trans-
formation has now almost been completed,
j For richness and magnificence of artistic and
religious treatment, the Wawel cathedral is, per-
haps, unequalled in the world. The Pole is lav-
ish by nature, and, in matters that concern his
religion, he is prodigal of costly gifts. Gold,
silver, jewels, stained glass, rare marbles and
other stones, costly carved woods, pictures, heavy
stuffs in decoration, sculptures, beaten and car-
ven work in metals — these are all to be seen in
such profusion that description is at a loss where
to begin. The great altar is backed by four mas-
sive columns, heavily covered with gold, between
which, on either side, one may see the painted
imago Christi, in rich bejewelled colour folds,
smiling sadly and benignantly down on the wor-

57

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

shippers. To the right is the chapel and tomb
of St. Stanislaw, the patron saint of Poland.
The chapel of Zygmunt (Sigismund) August is
the jewel of the coronet. This is said to be the
finest piece of Renaissance work north of the
Alps. The lower section of the wall is finished
in the beautiful red-veined Italian marble, mar-
vellously carved into shapes as delicate as though
of wood. The upper portion of the circle and
tomb is finished in grey marble, and adorned with
beautiful designs, rosettes and cusps, so cun-
ningly cut that, although the whole presents the
appearance of uniformity, no two ornaments are
alike. The splendid tomb itself is thickly gilded
with solid gold on the outside. During the Swed-
ish invasions, in the 17th century, this tomb was
painted black, or the rapacious soldiers of
Gustavus would certainly have carried off the
whole thing. In the rear of the great altar may
be seen a large, almost life-size figure of the
Christ, wrought out of solid silver. This also
was blackened that it might escape the Swedes,
and it still stands, dark and sombre, against its
background of silver ornament, which, however,
has been brightened.

Memories of the saintly Queen Jadwiga hang
about the Wawel. In one of the palaces, known
as "The Chicken's Foot," tradition has it thai
she used to meet her Austrian lover, Prince Wil-
liam, and it was from here that she went forth to

58

CRACOW: THE HEART OF POLAND

marry the barbarian Duke Jagiello, of Lithu-
ania, for the glory of God and the extension of
Poland.

One of the most picturesque customs that sur-
vives in this land of beautiful and picturesque
traditions, is the celebration of the Wianki
(wreaths) on the eve of St. John's night (June
24 ) . The great feature is the casting of wreaths
on the waters of the Vistula, just below the walls
of the Wawel. The legend of St. John's night
tells of the wonderful fern blossom which blooms
only at midnight, the flower disappearing almost
immediately. The girl who has courage enough
to penetrate into the depths of the wood at this
hour may find this blossom, and if she succeeds
in picking it, she holds in her hand lifelong hap-
piness. But she must be unusually brave to
face and pass the many dangers which await her
on the way. The night is full of horror. Elves
and spirits of the forests lurk among the trees,
witch wolves and monsters lie in wait in pits and
ravines, and many other frightful perils must
be faced. Indeed, she cannot even be certain
where this delicate plant grows. But one thing
she does know: the deeper she penetrates into
the forest the more certain she is of finding it.
This legend has a pretty origin, with a lovely
princess and a handsome prince in it, and, some-
how, the legend and Wanda, who, it will be re-
membered, threw herself into the Vistula to

59

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

escape the attentions of unwelcome admirers, all,
in some way, became connected. On the beauti-
ful evening in June, amid fireworks, music, and
general festivities, wreaths are cast on the river
from the walls of the Wawel. They are of vari-
ous colours. Set on fire, they float down the
river. A picture of Wanda about to throw her-
self into the river, surrounded by festoons, is
one of the features of the celebration observed by
great crowds from the parapets of the ancient
fortress.

A volume could be written on the churches of
Cracow alone. There are thirty-six of them, to
about 90,000 inhabitants. The whole story of
Polish religious fervour, of all the ecclesiastical
pageantry and devotional symbolism of this
devout people, may be seen in Cracow. Age, tra-
dition, form — these are the things one notes when
he enters one of these churches of Cracow. The
church of Panna Marya is one of the oldest and
most interesting of these temples. It is of pure
Gothic architecture, but with Byzantine effect.
The interior is thickly covered with gold, silver,
and jewels. The walls of the great nave are
covered with paintings of golden angels on a blue
background. There must be 300 of them, but
the painter, Jan Matejko, who restored this in-
terior, has not repeated himself. No two are
alike. Everything likely to impress a sensuous,
poetic, religiously inclined temperament is in this

60

CRACOW: THE HEART OF POLAND

church. Great stained windows, through which
the sunlight filters in a perfect riot of splendid
colour, make all the vaulted chamber look like
a kaleidoscope. On one side is a chapel of the
Madonna, literally blazing with jewels. At the
entrance, thickly placarded with sombre death
notices,* the beggars sit and quaveringly ask for
dole.

The great religious pageant of the year, a spec-
tacle unique in the world and this age, is the
procession of Boze Cialo, or Corpus Christi. One
may see very picturesque processions of Corpus
Christi in Italy, in Spain, in Mexico, in Canada.
But for impressive pageantry, flood of colour,
devotion and form that make you rub your eyes
and wonder if you are not back in the Middle
Ages, you must see Boze Cialo in Cracow.

It was a beautiful day in the early part of
June that I saw the procession from a window
overlooking the market place. Perhaps two thou-
sand persons participated in the ceremonies, but
many more, probably, watched from the square.
The day is a national holiday, the ceremony being
observed throughout Austria, even " His Apos-
tolic Majesty," the Emperor, formerly joining the
procession in Vienna and carrying his lighted
candle. In Poland, however, the ceremony is
most strictly and picturesquely observed. By
* When anyone dies in Cracow a black printed notice is
posted on the church door.

61

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

law, the military must be represented. This
morning one regiment marched with the wor-
shippers, its fine band (and the Austrian military
music is the finest in the world) blending with
the sacred chorals of the singers and the mellow
notes of the hejnal from the towers of Panna
Marya.

The procession begins. The crowd removes
their hats. The march is to the church, around
the square, and back again to the church, halting
at the four corners of the rynek for the reading
of the Gospel by the Bishop, at four altars which
have been erected. It is a riot of colour.
Brotherhoods and other religious orders, wearing
distinctive colours, pass in groups, some all in
white with blue facings, some with greens, others
with reds, yellows, purples, but all brilliant. A
large proportion are women, some with little
children, in arms or led by the hand. The
little ones are bareheaded, and most of them are
garbed in white, but they have badges, patches,
ribbons, of other distinctive colours. The women
are like tropical birds of plumage — skirt, bodice,
headkerchief of vivid reds, vermilions, blues,
greens, yellows, orange.

While the reading of the Gospel is in progress
a choir of young men chants sacred music. The
Bishop elevates the Host, and a soft, mellow-
toned bell tinkles. Down on the cobbles, on
their knees, falls everyone, participants and on-

63

CRACOW: THE HEART OF POLAND

lookers, and at the word of command, soldiers
also. As the Bishop finishes the rifles of the
military crash out, frightening the pigeons from
the eaves of the belfry of Panna Marya in great
white clouds. Then he marches to the next can-
opy slowly, under his baldachin, preceded by the
thurifer swinging incense, while, in front, pat-
ter little girls and boys, some so young that they
must be guided by mother's hand — all robed in
white and crowned with wreaths. The toddlers
walk backward, bearing baskets of flowers, which
they scatter in the path of His Reverence. This
is done at each of the four altars.

There are many banners. The Virgin and
Child, and the suffering Christ, appear, in picture
and image, in every conceivable material, in rich-
est panoply. Gold, silver, brocades heavy with
gilding — these represent the loving gifts of many
peasants for many years. Figures of the ago-
nising Christ, large and repellent, in brown wax,
standing upright or recumbent in great boxlike
structures, heavy and unwieldy, are borne by
gaily dressed peasant women, with proudly swell-
ing breasts. For this is the reward of virtue and
self-denial through the entire year, and the priest
has decided these women to be the worthy ones.
The banners are carried by men, but with diffi-
culty when the wind blows. The loose brown
coats, with leather supports for the banners about
the waists, make the bearers look like labourers

63

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

of the soil. But far from this. It is a religious
garb, and they are proud of it It is the sign of
virtue attained.

As the eye wanders over the motley but super-
latively picturesque crowd, it notes, after an
effort, the individuals here and there, the types.
Here a peasant, in red jacket and big boots, kneels
on the cobbles in the middle of the road, facing
the altar. Here a woman in vivid colour pros-
trates herself on the stones, oblivious of her sur-
roundings. There an old man in patched,
threadbare, dirty garments, his hands calloused
and brown from the moil of the fields, bends his
head, a la Angelus, and blesses himself. There
little children, scarcely out of arms, kneel, and
their lips tell the prayers. A choir, under a
wide-spreading chestnut tree, chants; the regi-
mental band plays martial music, while the
crowd, in its flashing attire, parasols as flaming
spots studding it at intervals, colours in " im-
possible " but effective combinations, closes in
slowly behind. The mass eddies and ebbs and
flows. The colours move, change, dissolve, com-
bine, dissolve again, till the observer feels almost
the sensation of sea-sickness. The old square
is fairly planted with colour as a gorgeous flower-
bed, and studded with censer, monstrance, can-
opy, baldachin, image, vestment. A row of
lighted candles, flickering weirdly in the bright
sunlight, fringes the procession, which slowly,

64

CRACOW: THE HEART OF POLAND

gracefully, undulatingly, like a large, beautiful,
multicolored serpent, sparkles, crepusculates,
vermiculates back to the church. The architec-
ture of the surrounding buildings harmonises
completely with the scene. The ancient Sukien-
nice, with its dash of Orientalism — time-worn,
grey — fits in perfectly with the ceremony. What
a spectacle for an artist !

How the Poles love the drama ! Even to those
who know the theatres of the large cities of
Europe, the Cracow playhouse is for its size one
of the best arranged and most artistic on the con-
tinent. Everything is in the exquisite taste
which the Poles always show in matters of art.
The architect was not hampered by enormously
high land values, and perspective is permitted to
display all its charms, landscape art all its beau-
ties.

From the finely proportioned stair and en-
trance to the splendid curtain painted by that
king of curtain-painters, Siemiradzki, everything
quite satisfies the eye and the aesthetic taste. The
Polish school of art, which received its first im-
pulse from the Academy founded in Cracow by
the famous historical painter, Jan Matejko, can
have no nobler monument than this perfect little
playhouse. The Austrians have learned one les-
son. For some years they have thoroughly ap-
preciated the fact that subsidising a German
theatre in Cracow, where German plays are

65

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

given which no one goes to see, is no more
efficacious as a Teutonising agency than subsidis-
ing a German newspaper in Posen, which no one
reads — which has been conclusively demonstrated
to the Prussian government. The Cracow thea-
tre gives Polish plays, and intensely Polish ones
at that.

It was under the most characteristic circum-
stances that I first witnessed a performance in
the Cracow theatre. Slowacki's intense, soul-
harrowing allegorical drama, " Kordjan," was
being given, at the special request of certain
patriotic citizens. Warsaw and the terrible
days of '30 and '31 were acted on the stage and
lived over again by the audience. Many of those
present had journeyed from the Polish metropolis
in the Russian Empire expressly to witness this
performance. Within the limits of the old repub-
lic, now under Russian domination, it is not
permitted to play " Kordjan," or to render, by
voice or instrument, the splendid, sad dirge,
"Z Dymem Pozardw "— " With the Smoke of
Conflagrations." — one of the Polish national
hymns, composed in 1846 by Ujejski. Whenever
the Russian Poles come to Cracow this hymn is
played for them. It is seldom that the Varso-
vians can hear, with unwet eyes, the solemn
strains which sum up Poland's agony and yearn-
ing. Are they not searchingly impressive?

66

CRACOW: THE HEART OF POLAND

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POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

68

CRACOW: THE HEART OF POLAND

" Kordjan " is Polish life and history for the
past century sublimated to an essence, with none
of the struggle and agony omitted, and it was
plainly evident that the citizens of Cracow had
come to the play not to be entertained by strong,
good acting (although in that respect the most
exacting could not have been disappointed), but
to iiave their patriotism quickened by living over
again while the actors spouted, in the nervous,
resonant lines of the mystic poet, one of the stern-
est chapters in their national history. Cracow
is the only Polish city in which " Kordjan " could
be presented, and to see this splendid, soul-
racking production in its theatre, is to come as
near to the heart of the Polish people as an alien
can ever hope to get. The majesty and intensity
of the poem goes straight to the patriotic con-
sciousness of even a spectator who knows no
Polish.

69

IV

THE POLES AND GERMANY'S WORLD
DREAM

AS the "Battle Gallery" in the Palace of
ZjL Versailles was established to be " an il-
A m luminative monument," * d toutes le%
gloires de la France" so the great series of his-
torical paintings which the celebrated Jan Ma-
tejko left as a patriotic legacy to his country are
really a splendid illustrated chronicle of the
glories of Poland. The Poles are immensely
proud of all these paintings, but not even the
magnificent " Sobieski before Vienna " gives
them such a sense of exultant satisfaction as the
two, " The Battle of Grunwald," and " The Prus-
sian Homage," both of which record triumphs
over the Teuton. These paintings now hang in
the Sukiennice at Cracow. The first shows the
Lithuanian prince, Witold, sharing with King
Wladyslaw (Ladislaus) of Poland the glory of
his tremendous victory over the Teutonic knights
(July 15, 1410). The second shows the envoys
of Prussia bending the knee before the Polish
king, Zygmunt I. (April 25, 1525). It recalls
the almost forgotten fact that Prussia was once
a fief of the Polish crown.

70

POLES AND GERMANY'S WORLD DREAM

The traveller who visits the Grand Duchy of
Posen today, especially the cities of Posen and
the more ancient Gnesen (Polish, Gniezno), and
meets at all points the proud Prussian army
officer, and sees all about him the evidences of
Prussian power and progress, will, no doubt,
find it difficult to realise that, four centuries
ago, Poland was supreme in what is now Prussia,
Silesia, and Pomerania, and, going still further
back, that the now sleepy little town of Gnesen
was the first capital of Poland.

Of Gnesen itself, the oldest town of Poland,
there is very little to be said to-day. Take a
horse and ride for six hours to the northeast of
the city of Posen, through a pleasant rural
region, all of hills and lakes, and reminding one
of central New York, and you reach Gnesen, in
the Prussian " government " of Bromberg. About
30,000 people, nearly equally divided between
Poles and German Jews, make a living in Gnesen
by weaving linen, distilling brandy, and trading
horses and cattle. After seeing the cattle mar-
ket, which is interesting to an American as being
so very different from the ones he sees in his
own great West, the hunter after antiquities goes
at once to the Cathedral. Here one is ready to
begin Polish history, and to begin it at its most
characteristic and essential phase, the religious.

Swienty Wojciech (in English, St. Adalbert),
whose bones rest in the cathedral, was one of the

71

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

first to preach the Gospel to the then heathen
Poles and Prussians. It was he who really in-
troduced Christianity into what is now Germany.
Toward the close of the 10th century he was
appointed Bishop of Prague, Bohemia being then
part of the Empire. But it was no bed of roses
that had been provided for him. The Bohemians
had but recently been converted to the new re-
ligion, and the Czech blood was still warm with
paganism. St. Adalbert's holiness was alto-
gether too much for his flock. They objected to
his austere code, in general. But when he for-
bade polygamy, they felt that their personal
liberty was being infringed upon. So they drove
him out of the city. After ten years' absence in
Rome he returned to his flock, but found them
worse than ever. So he gave them up in despair,
and devoted his remaining years to missionary
labours, principally in Poland and northern
Germany. He became the " Apostle to the Prus-
sians," and first preached the Gospel to the Poles
from beneath a great tree in what is now the
market place of Cracow. Over this spot has been
erected a chapel chiefly supported by the volun-
tary contributions of the cabmen, who hold St
Adalbert in particular reverence. The heathen
Prussians were no more appreciative of the
saintly Adalbert than the Czechs had been, and
they treated him far worse. While preaching in
Pomerania, near the modern city of Danzig, at

72

POLES AND GERMANY'S WORLD DREAM

Easter, in the year 997, one of the heathen priests
speared him to death. Legend has it that the
Poles begged his body, but the Prussians de-
manded its weight in gold. The reckoning was
made, and, lo, a miracle! The saint's body
weighed nothing at all — which was, indeed, a
miracle, for all representations show him to have
been of a very substantial build.

Gnesen was made the seat of an archbishop
in the beginning of the 11th century, and,
though it still has a cathedral chapter, the arch-
bishop now resides in Posen. It is to Posen,
therefore, rather than to Gnesen, despite the lat-
ter's longer history, that attention is to be di-
rected. Posen is one of the most strongly
fortified towns in the German Empire. It is
about fifty miles from the Russian border, and
counts, as the Germans put it, 150,000 inhabi-
tants. Its fortifications are of the first order,
and there are 60,000 men in the garrison. Posen
was for centuries a great depot on the overland
trade route between Asia and Europe. Like all
Polish cities, it formerly showed a semi-Eastern
cast of architecture and life, which, however, was
wiped out by the great fire in 1803. As rebuilt,
it looks very German.

It is as difficult to speak of the history of
Prussian Poland without bringing in the Teu-
tonic Knights as it would be to treat of early
American history without mentioning the Indian.

73

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

There is the same bloody story of age-long strug-
gle to the death, of cunning, frightful cruelty,
broken faith, and shameless prostitution of the
Christian religion, in this case to further the
private ends of a corrupt, rapacious military
oligarchy. There was this important difference :
The Teutonic Knights were not the original pos-
sessors of the land, as were the American Indians.
Eight hundred years ago Conrad, Duke of Mazo-
via, sent an embassy to invite the Teutonic
Knights to occupy eastern Prussia, on certain
conditions (which they did not fulfil), and two
centuries later all Prussia called upon Poland
to deliver it from the bondage of the Knights.
Like all other organisations which began during
the Crusades as a militant religious order, the
Teutonic Knights gradually forgot their religion,
except as a convenient cloak, but retained the
militant side of their idea. They originated the
" for the good of the Order " slogan. To-day this
once powerful organisation is confined largely
to Bohemia and other portions of the Austrian
Empire. Many of its members have become ad-
herents of the University of Prague, where they
hold good " livings " as professorships. Take a
ten minutes' walk through the quaint capital of
Bohemia and you will see a number of reverend,
inoffensive individuals, wearing a badge which
consists of a red satin cross over a six-pointed
star. The Praguers, who have not forgotten

74

POLES AND GERMANY'S WORLD DREAM

their Latin, call them Stelliferi. They are the
successors of the men who tormented Jurand, of
" The Knights of the Cross," and were defeated
at Grunwald, by the Lithuanians and Poles under
King Wladyslaw and Prince Witold.

From Gnesen as a centre the Polish Common-
wealth grew by conquest and marriage. The
histories of Poland tell us that the town became
great as a result of the marriage of Mieczyslaw
I. to DombroVka, a Christian Bohemian prin-
cess who is to Polish history what Chlotild is to
French. Through her, Mieczyslaw was converted
to the Christian faith, and one of his successors',
Boleslaw L, known as the Great, was so powerful
and held such a splendid court that the Emperor
Otho determined to pay him a visit. Indeed,
there was good reason for an acquaintance to be
mutually desirable. The pagan Slavonians gave
the Emperor a good deal of trouble by their fre-
quent descents on his loyal province of Saxony.
He also had difficulties in Italy. So he was very
anxious for a treaty of peace and friendship with
Boleslaw. That monarch saw a chance of realis-
ing, through Otho, his great ambition — to gain
permission from the Pope, who then dispensed
all the crowns of the world, to be recognised as
King of Poland. Up to this time the Emperor
had looked upon Poland as a part of the German
Empire. Under pretext of making a pilgrimage
to the tomb of St. Adalbert, the Emperor paid a

75

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

visit to Boleslaw. So impressed was he with the
magnificence of the Polish court and the lavish
hospitality with which he was welcomed, that he
took the crown from his own head and placed it
on that of Boleslaw. He made a treaty with the
Polish monarch, and the Pope erected an Arch-
bishopric of Gnesen.

Centuries of war with Kussians, Swedes, Cos-
sacks, Tartars, and Germans, feats of national
chivalry followed by wild periods of bloodshed
and intrigue, bring Polish history down to the
time of the first partition in 1772. Since the
reign of Frederick the Great of Prussia a large
section of the old Polish Commonwealth has been
part of the Prussian realm. Meanwhile, Prussia
has risen to her present splendid altitude of
leader in the German Empire, and the strongest
military power in the world. What relation do
the Polish subjects of the Prussian crown bear to
the Empire in its national aims to-day? Let us
pause for a moment to consider the world dream
of the German people.

In this first decade of the 20th century, what is
Germany trying to do? What is the idea and
ideal which is engrossing all the energy and in-
tellect of the German people? A study of the
career of the German Emperor can scarcely fait
to show that Germany is aiming at nothing less
than the Germanisation of the world.

When the Kaiser "dropped the pilot over-
76

POLES AND GERMANY'S WORLD DREAM

board " and determined to be his own steersman,
he took from the hands of Bismarck the main out-
lines of his chart of empire building. " Germany,"
said the greatest of Teutonic statesmen, " lies be-
tween two great military nations neither of which
bears her any good will: Russia on one side,
France on the other. With a revengeful power
on one side, and an ambitious one on the other,
Germans can hardly be either tranquil or con-
tent. Germany is not a match for both at the
same time, and, lest they join their forces [did
the keen statesman actually foresee the Franco-
Russian alliance?], the great defensive aim of
Germany should be to keep her two formidable
neighbours busy elsewhere."

This was the keynote of the Bismarckian sys-
tem of foreign politics. With this end in view,
the creator of modern Germany played " high
politics " till he had succeeded in getting France
busy opposing England in Egypt and in making
Russia " face the British lion all along the fron-
tiers of the world." By this policy he also
succeeded, to a certain degree, in distracting
England's attention from German commercial
development.

Secure for a long period from molestation by
her most feared neighbours, Germany is begin-
ning to show her hand in active policy. Her
wonderful industrial and commercial develop-
ment is leaving England behind, and she is now

77

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

reaching out in challenge to the other members
of the great Anglo-Saxon family. The rise of
united Germany, the tremendous start in the
world of politics, economics, and commerce given
her by the victory over France and the vast
money indemnity she wrung from her prostrate
foe, the far-seeing world policy of Bismarck, the
comprehensive schemes for domestic development
and foreign advancement which the present
Kaiser has inaugurated and is bringing to p
— these, together with the acknowledged military
leadership of the world, a rapidly increasing
navy, a merchant marine whose sails whiten every
harbour of the globe, and an unrivalled system of
technical commercial education, have made the
comparatively short life of the new German
Empire unique in the history of nations. The
Kaiser is one of the most brilliant and fascinating
personalities of the day, undeniably of great
capacity for statesmanship. His ambition, more-
over; is boundless. Keen students of contem-
porary history believe that, in his famous phrase,
" Unscre Zukunft Hcgt auf dent ^Ya88cr,'' whicll
was emblazoned on the German building at the
Paris Exposition, is to be found the latest
" feeler" " of Germany in the direction of world
supremacy.

A number of nations have been possessed by
the ambition to become supreme on both land and
water. No nation has ever achieved this ambi-

78

POLES AND GERMANY'S WORLD DREAM

tion, although France, under the tremendous
ideas of Colbert, came very near success. Eng-
land's supremacy on the sea is unchallenged, but
she does not claim, nor has she ever claimed,
hegemony on land. Will Germany wrest the
supremacy of the ocean from England? Only
the future can tell, but a comparison of the re-
spective growths of German and British merchant
marines during the past twenty-five years will
make historical students pause and think.

If the headship of Europe is to be won on land,
it is evident that Germany must keep all the
Teutons together and create a greater Germany,
occupying the centre of the continent, to which
all men of German speech shall owe allegiance.
And here comes in Germany's interest in Aus-
trian politics. The Austrian Germans do not
hesitate to admit that they regard their ultimate
destiny as within the German Empire. If to the
sixty or more million inhabitants of the Father-
land are added the eight or ten million German-
speaking subjects of Franz Joseph, and if Hol-
land finally (as now seems possible, despite
Dutch patriotism) falls into the German basket,
we have the thrilling fact that between Hamburg
and Triest there is a German empire numbering
seventy-five millions or more. Berlin is already
the dominating capital of the continent. It is no
longer asked what will Paris or Vienna think,
but what will Berlin do? Get just beyond the cen-

79

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

tripetal influence of London and Paris, and all
roads lead to Berlin. At most of the railroad
stations in Austria, Kussia, and Scandinavia,
and of course the less important countries, the
first item usually on the schedule boards is u nach
Berlin." The busy modern city on the Spree is
the great maelstrom of continental Europe. Her
policies challenge Japan at Pekin, and France in
Morocco. Nothing short of an alliance of all
western Europe is now considered adequate to
offset the influence of the German capital.

While Englishmen and Americans are assert-
ing that the future will be divided between the
Anglo-Saxon and the Slav, the German believes
that the Germanic stock is the one that, in the
coming centuries, will contest world supremacy
with the Slav peoples. It is always admitted,
however, that despite his setbacks the Slav is
coming without a doubt. Even now, has not the
temporary effacement of Russia given to Ger-
many the undisputed leadership of the continent?
The German knows that his breed is much more
prolific than either member of the so-called
Anglo-Saxon family. Not only does he want ex-
pansion for political reasons — he must have it
for his surplus population. The programme of the
Pan-Germans has been definitely outlined by
one of the Young Czech leaders in the Austrian
Reichsrath. In reply to a hint from one of the
Pan-German members that Austria would be com-

80

POLES AND GERMANY'S WORLD DREAM

pelled to call in foreign assistance to subdue
Czech intransigentism, the Bohemian statesman
declared that his countrymen fully realise they
are only a small Slav outpost in the country of
the " Teutonic enemy."

The union of Austria's German provinces with
Germany would mean the creation of a German
empire possessing the heart of the continent, an
empire that would be the arbitress of Europe and
the greatest of the world powers. It would cer-
tainly give the Germans relief for years from
the pressure of their agrarian problem, and tre-
mendous impetus in their economic struggle with
England and the United States. The Kaiser's
present comprehensive canal programme would
be a plaything compared with the grand scheme
of internal waterways which the Berlin govern-
ment would bring about by the union of the canals
of the Elbe, the Oder, and the Danube. Berlin
would become mistress of all the resources and
commercial legislation of central Europe, of all
the railroads, posts, telegraphs, and telephones.
The Danube is really a German river from its
source in the Swiss mountains to the Iron Gate
on the Roumanian border. Sailing down the
lordly stream from the heart of Bavaria to Buda-
pest, the traveller passes through the homes of
German-speaking men all the way.

With the great Middle Empire an accomplished
fact, the Danube would become a German river

81

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

from its source to its mouth in the Black Sea.
It would be the uninterrupted water route by
which German stuffs would go direct to the
Orient. It would mean commercial and indus-
trial supremacy in the Balkans and Asia Minor.
When the Kaiser sets out to claim this supremacy
he will find well-prepared soil. Railroad con-
cessions, colonial settlements, and other vested
interests in Syria and Asia Minor will give him
the position of the first " preferred creditor "
when the final liquidation of the debts of the
Porte is made.

Italy, although a little restive because of her
sympathy with France in the Moroccan problem,
yet remains loyal to the Dreibund. Thus the
southwestern frontier of Germany is secure, for
Switzerland has, these many years, been circling
within the German orbit.

To the northward, in Denmark and across the
Baltic, are eleven million Scandinavians, all Teu-
tons, of a purer Teutonism than the Prussians
themselves. The northern peoples are impressed
by the splendour of German greatness and power.
One of the most serious of German journals, the
Deutsche Tages Zeitung, recently quoted a Stock-
holm review as declaring that there is only one
hope for the nations of the North — an alliance
with Germany. " This is easy, for Germany does
not seek conquest, and is highly popular in Scan-
dinavia, as she aims only at a triumph of the

82

POLES AND GERMANY'S WORLD DREAM

Germanic nations in the work of civilisation."
This review is quoted as favouring the entrance
of Sweden into the German union on the same
terms as Bavaria, Saxony, and Wurtemberg.
There is some popular agreement with this idea
in Scandinavia. " If Russian aggression be-
comes much more threatening," said a prosperous
Stockholm merchant to the writer several years
ago, " Sweden must look to western Europe to
guarantee its integrity, or go over to Germany."

Even the most distant outposts of the Germanic
race are not to be neglected in the great ingather-
ing. Therefore much active sympathy with the
Boers, and therefore half a dozen great steam-
ship lines, supported by the government, to bind
to the Fatherland the more than half a million
Germans and their increasing interests in South
America.

Now we begin to see the titanic stature of the
Germania of the future as German enthusiasts
tell us she haunts the dreams of the Kaiser. A
united empire of all the people of Teutonic blood
and speech, with the military leadership of the
world, a powerful and constantly expanding
navy, agricultural self -sufficiency (if the agrari-
ans can only be satisfied without incurring too
heavy tariff reprisals from foreign nations),
room and resource for industrial development —
did ever Napoleon conjure up such an ambition
as this?

83

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

And what of the Poles in Prussia? Have they
been Germanised? Have they been assimilated?
Do they also dream this world dream?

Although it is more than a full century since
the last partition of Poland, there is still a " Po-
lish question " to reckon with, and nowhere is
it more acute and clamorous for solution than in
Prussia, the country in which, numerically,
" Polonism " is weakest. There are only four
million Poles in the German Empire, yet the
Polish " danger " is one of the biggest bugbears
of the imperial government. Bismarck used to
insist that the only internal dangers which
threatened Germany were Polonismus and So-
cialismus. Both of these " dangers " have in-
creased ominously of late.

The real " Polish danger " to Prussia, stated in
its broad, general lines, arises out of the fact that
the Poles are the advance guard of the great Sla-
vonic race, which is the latest swarm from the
East. It is the inevitable race antagonism which
seems to be one of the ordinations of nature.
The Poles have a proverb that never, while the
world lasts, will the German be a friend to the
Pole. The basic characteristics of the two peo-
ples are radically, irreconcilably different. The
German realises that the Slav is the coming
people. He fears that, perhaps, his own day
has arrived, that, perhaps even now, his sun is
slanting toward its western sky. He is in con-

84

POLES AND GERMANY'S WORLD DREAM

stant dread of a Catholic Slav empire on his east-
ern frontier. The Pole is the oldest, the most
finely organised, most highly developed member
of the Slav family, and if he can be kept down
with a strong hand, perhaps the whole family
may be held in check. Therefore, the Poles must
be kept down.

All along his eastern frontier, from Lapland to
Transylvania, the Teuton touches the Slav, and,
where the two powerful, virile races meet, there
is the frayed edge of differing civilisations, the
fierce clash of race passions, the intense white
heat, not of fusion and welding, but of sputter-
ing, seething, spark-emitting contact. And the
Slav is gaining at every point. Indeed, it would
very much surprise the man who knows his
Europe only from the map were he to travel
through the eastern part of the kingdom of Prus-
sia and Austria and see how far westward the
boundary line of the Slavonic peoples has been
retraced during the past century. On the map,
provinces and cities are coloured as German, and
appear under German names. But walk the
streets of these cities, tramp through the country
districts of these same provinces, and you will
find that the people are Slavonic in characteris-
tics, and in speech even, and that there is only
a very thin veneer of " official " Germanisation.
To the world, which sees only the map, it is Posen,
Danzig, Breslau, Krakau, Lemberg. Actually,

85

POLAND : THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

to the people who live in these places, or who do
business in them, it is Poznan, Gdansk, Wraclaw,
KrakoV, and LwoV, as it was when Poland was
at the height of her power. The grand duchies
of Posen, East Prussia, and West Prussia are
Polish, Silesia is almost all Polish, and even the
Pomeranians and Brandenburgers speak a dia-
lect which betrays their Slavonic origin.

The great wedge of Polish territory which ex-
tends to within eighty miles of the capital of
Frederick the Great, and for the possession of
which he joined in the first partition, is still Po-
lish. Officially it is Teutonic, but actually it is
unmistakably, irreclaimably Slavonic. It elects
sixteen Polish deputies to the Reichstag, who
represent Polish constituents. Across the east-
ern border of Prussia lies the largest section of
the former Commonwealth, now a portion of vast
Russia. To the south is Galicia. Prussia's en-
tire eastern frontier and a good part of her
southern boundary line touch Slav peoples.

The Poles in Prussia continue to advance and
increase despite the best laid, most expensive,
even frantic schemes of the Prussian government
to keep them back. The plan of German isation
is twofold in scope: it is aimed against the Po-
lish landowners and against the Polish language.

The campaign gradually to acquire Polish
land and introduce German colonists on it is one
of the pet schemes of the Prussian government.

86

POLES AND GERMANY'S WORLD DREAM

This scheme was begun by Bismarck at the time
of the Kulturkampf, in the early 'seventies of
the past century. This Kulturkampf was anti-
Polish as well as anti-Catholic, in Prussian Po-
land, or, it should perhaps be put, anti-Polish
because anti-Catholic, for the close association
of creed and nationality among the Poles must
never be forgotten. It was Bismarck who
brought about the Germanisation of the schools
of the Empire, and the dismissal of all Poles from
governmental service, and compelled the vote
of a large sum of money to buy Polish lands and
introduce German colonists on it. This last ac-
complishment was the origin of the famous move-
ment now known as " Hakatism," from the
initials of the three leaders, Hannemann, Kenne-
mann, and Tiedemann. The fund has been
increased at various times, and now amounts to
a round four hundred and fifty million marks,
that is, one hundred and twelve million dollars.
The policy of Germanising Polish lands con-
sists in attempting to settle German peasants
in the districts where Poles are in the majority.
With the funds appropriated land belonging to
Polish landed proprietors and Polish peasants is
bought and the Poles are replaced by German
proprietors and German peasants. This measure
has proved a godsend to those Polish landed pro-
prietors whose estates were heavily encumbered,
for they were by this policy enabled to sell them

87

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

on very favourable terms. German buyers for
lands in this part of the Empire are rare, but
Poles are ever ready to buy, even at the highest
price. The large supply of gold which the coloni-
sation commission brought has raised the price
of land and increased the credit of the Poles, and
the value of their estates to-day is more than
twice as great as it was twenty years ago. They
have now an abundant business capital and are
increasingly prosperous economically; therefore,
they will pay any price to retain or acquire Polish
land. The Pole, indeed, must buy land, since he
is debarred from holding government office and
has no other means of making a living.

So far, about 6,000 families, or about 30,000
people, have thus been settled by the state among
the Poles, but in spite of all the government can
do, the Poles have not only held their ground in
the east of Germany, but they have apparently
even gained ground, partly because their national
instinct is strongly developed and because they
cling to their language ; partly also because they
are even more prolific than are the Germans.
Indeed, they are everywhere increasing faster
than the Germans. They are a prolific race and
are gradually pushing their oppressors out of
Poland by the simple, natural method of growing
more rapidly. Consequently, in the province of
Posen, where about 1,500,000 Poles and about
1,000,000 Germans are living side by side, the

88

POLES AND GERMANY'S WORLD DREAM

Germans have increased by only 3f per cent,
between 1890 and 1900, while the Poles have in-
creased by about 10| per cent, during the same
period.

The Colonisation Commission appointed by the
Prussian government to administer the large
sums voted for the purchase of Polish lands has
undoubtedly accomplished good results in the
way of bringing neglected and worn-out land
under modern methods of cultivation, and in
dividing up the large estates. In curbing the at
times arrogant attitude of the landed nobles, the
Commission has also brought about social and
economic benefit. But, politically, its work has
been a failure most dismal. The only lands it
has been able to buy are those of the Germans
anxious to withdraw from among a people that
dislike them. The Germans who are persuaded
to settle in the Polish land soon learn that they
are an alien people, disliked and distrusted. Ger-
man professional men who have tried to practise
in Posen complain that they cannot live for want
of patronage, and a German merchant is boy-
cotted if there is a Polish tradesman near. The
Poles simply will not sell their land except under
the severest need, and even then the sale of Polish
land to a German is regarded as a crime by the
Poles. I heard of more than one case in which
the entire family of an impecunious noble boy-
cotted and disinherited him for selling his estate

89

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

to a German, although he was in need to desti-
tution.

The " Hakatist " movement has had one result
not counted upon by its projectors. It has
greatly intensified the Polish Nationalist idea,
and given it form and a distinct aim in
Prussia. The Prussian Poles have an organisa-
tion which is a sort of " counter-irritant " to the
Hakatists. Its work consists in aiding poor
Polish nobles who, without its assistance, might
be tempted to part with their lands to Germans.
The large landowners have endeavoured, by in-
dividual as well as organised effort, to colonise
on their own account by parcelling or sub-divid-
ing their lands and selling the parcels to Polish
peasants, who are only too willing to buy them.
The Pan-Polish movement in Prussia is vigorous
and well developed. It is even trying to buy
back some of the land already expatriated to
Germans. Most of the landowners who have
been bought off have gone into the towns and
entered commerce, forming an active bourgeoisie.
This is gradually weaning the Poles away from
their old prejudice against trade and furnishing
them with the nucleus of a strong, patriotic, and
respected middle class, the lack of which has been
heretofore one of the weakest spots in Polish na-
tional life.

No more successful has been the campaign of
the Berlin government against the Polish lan-

90

POLES AND GERMANY'S WORLD DREAM

guage. By law, all Polish children must attend
schools where only German is spoken, adult Poles
are forbidden the use of their native tongue in
any public proceedings, and letters which are ad-
dressed in Polish will not be delivered. German
officials only are appointed in Polish districts,
and, within the past few years, nearly every
Polish professor has been transferred to distant
German sections. A Polish gentleman of Posen
told me that even the prayers and catechism are
taught in German, despite the petitions of the
Polish bishops. This was the real cause of the
celebrated trial and punishment of the Polish
school children at Wreschen several years ago.
Yet it must be confessed that some headway in
the supplanting of the Polish language is notice-
able in Germany. In the technical, scientific, and
commercial subjects as taught in the schools of
these provinces, of course, only German is used.
The Polish children never use these expressions
at home, and consequently never learn the Polish
equivalents. Indeed, there are no Polish equiv-
alents for many such special terms, for the very
reason set forth above. The son of one of these
pupils may not learn Polish anywhere except as
an acquired study. In Germany all letters must
be addressed in German, and the time will per-
haps come when the young generation will not
know how to address a letter in Polish.

So far as the material development of her Po-
91

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

lish provinces is concerned, it must be admitted
Prussia has done excellently. " When they be-
came a part of the Prussian monarchy, the condi-
tion of these provinces was deplorable, due largely
to the weak, dissolute Saxon kings, it must be
confessed. Frederick the Great, with his charac-
teristic energy, at once devoted a considerable
portion of Prussia's meagre resources to improve-
ments of every kind. Whole villages and towns
were rebuilt. This was, of course, in the interest
of Germans, but the Poles also benefited. The
impoverished peasantry was furnished with seed
corn, potatoes, and cattle, and taxes were remit-
ted for years. German colonies were established,
and for a long time the government aided them
in attaining a sound financial basis. The civil
administration, which had been in a chaotic state,
was put on a sound basis, and security of life and
property was rigidly enforced."

Especially since 1860 has Polish Prussia pros-
pered economically. Agricultural methods have
been improved, mines developed, and manufac-
turing industries established. A prosperous
middle class has been growing up. Education
has made rapid strides, and the percentage of
Polish scholars at German universities has in-
creased tenfold since 1880.

It is only politically that the Prussian gov-
ernment, totally misreading the Polish national
character, has utterly failed. Fair-minded stu-

93

POLES AND GERMANY'S WORLD DREAM

dents of history will concede that the Polish
problem is one full of grave consequences for
the German Empire. Left to themselves, the
Poles would, beyond a doubt, defeat by force of
their rapid increase alone the programme of
Germanisation, the welding together of all parts
of the Empire into homogeneity. The very ma-
terial wealth of these provinces has made the
task of Germanising them all the harder — almost
impossible. The Poles refuse to be dominated
or cajoled, and exceptional laws, in view of the
liberty enjoyed by the Galician Poles under the
Austrian Emperor Francis Joseph, and the con-
dition of Germany's internal and external poli-
tics, are difficult to enact. With an intellectual
training, the Poles who have been educated
in German universities are the leaders in the
movement to perpetuate the Polish race, lan-
guage, and mode of thought, and to put the
masses in a state of readiness for the independ-
ent Poland of the future. The problem is one of
the most serious which the Prussian monarchy
has to face.

In dealing with the Poles, however, the policy
of Germanisation seems to have duplicated all
the mistakes England has managed to make in
Ireland, and, in addition, all that the English
would no doubt have made if Ireland still spoke
Erse, and was located on a dangerous frontier.
In commenting on the futility of the policy of

93

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

repression, an eminent Prussian writer (Prof.
Hans Delbrueck, in the Preussische Jahrbitcher)
recently contended that the danger from the Poles
to the German state is not in the fact that Polish
is spoken in the East Mark. " The danger is that
fully ten per cent, of the subjects of the Prussian
king, who sit together in compact masses on a
highly dangerous frontier, instead of feeling at-
tachment to Prussia, thoroughly hate the state."

The Prussian Poles have never made an at-
tempt to throw off their allegiance to Prussia.
The small insurrection in the province of Posen
in 1848 was the outcropping of the Berlin revo-
lution of that year, and it had more the charac-
ter of a fight for constitutional than for national
rights.

It is only against Russian dominion that the
Poles have taken up arms. On the other hand,
how much Polish blood has been spilled for
Prussia in her late wars! The greatest enemy
of Poland can speak with enthusiasm of the
bravery displayed by the Polish contingents in
the Prussian armies.

Moreover, after the last division of Poland had
been sanctioned by the Congress of Vienna, the
Prussian king, in a royal manifesto which has
never been officially rescinded, guaranteed to the
Poles the free exercise of their national rights:
their religion, their language, their schools, and
a certain amount of local self-government. This

94

POLES AND GERMANY'S WORLD DREAM

royal manifesto contains the total of demands
on the part of the Polish subjects of the Prussian
crown. As citizens they are entitled equally
with their fellow-subjects of German nationality
to the full protection of the law, and the good
will of the authorities. Instead of this, special
laws are constantly being framed, which injure
them morally or materially; existing laws are
stretched to their utmost, and sometimes even
overstepped for the same purpose.

It is a moral as well as a political score which
the Poles have to settle with Prussia. Treat-
ment, not so much with hostility as with con-
tempt, as if of an inferior race, is the reason
for the at first somewhat surprising fact that,
despite the greater cruelty of the " Russifica-
tion " process, there is undoubtedly less common
feeling between Poles and Germans than be-
tween Poles and Russians. While Russia perse-
cutes the Poles, the latter feel that there is, after
all, a kinship of race which somehow makes it
easier to forgive. During the Russian persecu-
tion, furthermore, the Poles have always had the
satisfaction of feeling that they were of a more
mature branch of the race, a more refined, more
subtle people than their oppressors. But the
Germans are thoroughly imbued with the idea
that German civilisation and German adminis-
tration are so manifestly superior to Polish that
for a Pole to become a German must, of course,

95

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

be a promotion which he ought earnestly to de-
sire, and if he does not desire it, he ought to be
made to do so. The Poles must accept German
civilisation, because it is infinitely superior to
theirs. This brusque treatment of the Poles by
the Germans as a much inferior people who
" must be protected against themselves," is very
exasperating to a proud, sensitive nation that
had a university before Germany ever had one.

" How do the Poles live under the Prussian
government?" I asked a gentleman of Breslau.
" They work hard and defend themselves as best
they can against Germanisation," he replied.
" Sienkiewicz has certainly been a godsend to
us in these days of heaviness. His books keep
the national spirit from despondency. Written
as they are in the purest Polish, they comfort
the Polish hearts. He is a great moral asset, is
Sienkiewicz, almost a prophet. His writings
keep us from moral decline, from the injury of
hating even our oppressors."

The real danger for the Poles, Sienkiewicz has
written, is hatred against Germanism. No mat-
ter how harshly they may be treated, the Poles
must not get the fever of hatred. They must not
abate one jot of their patriotism. But hatred is
a disease.

" Hatred begets hatred. Protect the Polish
popular mind from hatred, in order not to be
poisoned. Protect it morally and politically.

96

POLES AND GERMANY'S WORLD DREAM

Remember that only God knows what evolutions
are impending. . . . Whatever great changes
may come, you must always live with the Ger-
mans in the eastern provinces. Remember that
hatred is a fever. Whoever does not want to die
of fever must overcome it. . . . One must
be bereft of all political or historical perception
not to see that the treatment you are receiving
from your enemies not only lacks dignity, but the
equipoise and intelligence which characterise ac-
tions as reasonable. Intelligent Germans see
this. You, too, must feel that logic is lacking
in the measures applied against you, and that
the authorities themselves are not clear regard-
ing the success of those measures, and are tor-
menting you even against their own advantage.
Hold fast to your Polonism. Let no power on
earth tear it from you. But avoid hatred of the
present government's policy. It will pass."

If the German is to expand and become master
of the world by conquest of the water, he must
do it at the expense of the Anglo-Saxon. If he is
to acquire world supremacy by consolidation of
all the men of his speech, and conquest of conti-
nental Europe, it must be done by elbowing out
the Slav. And he will have to settle first with
the Slav of his own household. When the war
breaks out between Russia and Germany (as
most Germans believe it some day must), then
will come the opportunity of the Poles. More

97

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

than two hundred thousand Russian troops are
always ready in Russian Poland " for emer-
gency." The traveller at all familiar with the
Grand Duchy of Posen, and, indeed, all of Prus-
sia, finds it not difficult to prophesy what would
happen the moment a Russian army corps set
out from the erstwhile Polish capital bent on a
hostile errand toward Germany. All Slavonic
Germany (if I may use the expression), meaning
all of the Empire east of a line drawn from the
mouth of the River Elbe to but a little east of
Dresden, would be tolerably certain to spring to
arms to join the invader. "If Prussia were
really shrewd and realised what is best for her,"
said a Posen Pole to me, " she would quit tan-
talising the Poles by perfectly useless methods
of persecution, and would look to establishing a
buffer between herself and Russia against the
inevitable day of conflict. By her present meth-
ods, she only succeeds in making chronic a sore
point in the very body of the Empire."

98

RUSSIA'S EUROPEAN DOOR*

I ESS than two hours' ride by a good train
from Posen brings the traveller to the
J line of bayonets which betokens the pa-
tient, untiring, ever watchful advance of the
mighty Slav race, Poland yet, but Poland under
the aegis of the Russian eagles. This boundary
is not merely the dividing line between two geo-
graphical divisions; it is the picket line of two
ethnic units. The points of contact between
Teuton and Slav, from Lapland to Transylvania,
are the points of white heat conflict between two
powerful, radically different races and civilisa-
tions. It is at the point where she touches Teu-
tonic peoples, that is, on Polish soil, that Russia,
the leader of the Slav march, must be ap-
proached, because it is across the Polish thresh-

* This chapter was written before the Russo-Japanese
war and the political and economic crisis following that
conflict My claims for Russia's potentialities may seem
contradicted by the apparent weakness of the present
situation. Are the Russian people able to even govern
themselves? The future is on the knees of the gods. I
claim no gift of prophecy, but there is something at the
back of my consciousness that makes me unwilling to re-
cast this chapter now. L«. H. V. N.

99

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

old that the world goes to Kussia, and Russia
comes to the world. All the railroads that con-
nect the Tzar's empire with the rest of the world
(there are no exceptions worth mentioning)
from Vienna, from Berlin, cross what was for-
merly the republic of Poland. The country of
Kosciuszko and Sienkiewicz, of Chopin and
Paderewski, is the European threshold of Russia.

The Polish problem is of vital importance to
Russia. When complications with the Teutonic
powers are threatened, it sends shivers down the
back of the war office in St. Petersburg. As
Captain Mahan has pointed out, Russia is al-
ways menaced on the one flank by Germany, and
on the other, 7,000 miles away, by Japan. The
reality of danger from the latter has now been
pressed home to Russia with terrible force.
What if, now or in the near future, the splendid
army of the Kaiser should be set in motion? Po-
land is Russia's European door, and it would be
much better for the empire of the Tzar if that
door were not so willing to be opened. There
can be no questioning the truth of the statement
that, bound up in justice to Poland, is the safety,
the welfare, of the Russian Empire, and the
speedy realisation of its vast ambitions in Asia
as well as in Europe.

The famous international compact of 1815,
known as the Treaty of Vienna, settled the pres-
ent political divisions of the old Polish republic.

100

RUSSIA'S EUROPEAN DOOR

By far the largest portion went to Russia. This
included the kingdom of Poland, which was to
be a separate state bound to the Empire by a
personal union of sovereigns, and the provinces
comprising the old Lithuanian country united to
Poland in the 15th century, and the Ruthenian
country (now known as Little Russia). It
is " Kr61estwo Polskie," however, " the Kingdom
of the Congress," which is Poland to the general
reader to-day. The Tzar still bears the title of
King of Poland, but the constitutional kingdom
created at the great settlement of political ac-
counts in 1815 has been officially styled " The
Cis- Vistula Governments," ever since the abso-
lute incorporation with the Russian Empire in
1868.

Russian Poland is almost exactly the size of
the State of New York, each geographical divi-
sion covering slightly more than 49,000 square
miles. It comprises ten "governments," and is
the most densely populated portion of the entire
Empire. In the chapter on Warsaw the writer
has endeavoured to set forth some of the most
striking indications of Poland's industrial and
economic progress. This growth has been phe-
nomenal. In 1870, almost before the nation had
begun to rouse itself from the terrible experi-
ences of '63, the value of Polish manufactured
products was about |30,000,000. When the
Russo-Japanese war broke out it had attained

101

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

the total of $250,000,000. In this period the
number of factory hands had increased from
65,000 to 245,000. Industrial development has
made the urban population 27 per cent, of the
whole. Persecution has certainly developed the
resources of the Pole. The energy which is de-
nied outlet into politics and public life is de-
voted to trade, manufacture, science, art, and
literature, in all of which the Poles excel to-day.
Though Poles are denied many of the rights
accorded to other subjects of the Empire, and, as
Poles, are not permitted to rise higher than a
certain rank in the army, the influence of Polish
thought and enterprise is stamped ineffaceably
on Russia. In his first book on Siberia, George
Kennan praised the Tzar for the progress and
development he found in the southern part of
that vast Asiatic realm. He did not then know
that most of the civilising work he saw was due
to the industry and culture of the Polish exiles
sent across the Urals in the reign of the Empress
Catherine. Poles have everywhere contributed
to the advance of Russia. To serve the Empire
officially in Poland would compromise a Pole's
patriotism. But outside of the kingdom many
Poles are in high positions. The vice-president
of the Manchurian Railroad is a Pole. The lead-
ing civil and military engineers on the Siberian
and Manchurian Railroads are Poles, as are also
most of the directors of these roads. The direct-
ion

RUSSIA'S EUROPEAN DOOR

ors of the Russo-Chinese Bank are Poles. Coal
for the whole Siberian and Manchurian Railroad
is furnished by Poles, who are owners of immense
coal mines near Irkutsk. The chief of motive
power of the railroad in Irkutsk is a Pole. The
chief of the railroad works in Irkutsk also is a
Pole. The Russians are wont to call Poland a '
burden, but it is a burden that has meant riches
and industrial expansion to the Empire.

It must be admitted that the imperial gov-
ernment is very liberal and progressive in its
commercial policy when this is for the benefit of
the entire Empire. New businesses are often ex-
empted from taxation till they are on their feet,
and everything is done to build up trade possi-
bilities. And, despite the discriminations against
them, up to the breaking out of the war with
Japan the Poles were thriving commercially.
They are increasing faster than the Russians.
Towns that thirty years ago had a Russian
population of 20,000 and a Polish population of
10,000, now number 50,000 Poles and 30,000
Russians.

Even to-day most of the Russian Poles date
everything back to 1863, that terrible year when
50,000 of the best of the nation perished on the
scaffold or were deported. After such a blood-
letting, the nation sank into a sort of moral stu-
por which lasted until the 'nineties of the past
century.

103

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

Oppressed and persecuted at every step by the
Russification policy of the reactionaries, dis-
heartened by disaster, and having lost the very
flower of its manhood, the Polish people became
filled with an apathy amounting to a complete
political indifference. With the emigration after
the uprising, it left but little hope among the
Poles.

Realising their utter hopelessness, " disillu-
sioned and exhausted, the intclligcntcya of
Russian Poland broke away from its old ideals,"
and began gradually to work out a new political
creed, a new set of ideals, better suited to the
material interests of the bourgeois class, which
had now become predominant.

The landless proletariat of the rural districts
began to concentrate in the large cities. War-
saw, Lodz, Czenstochowa, and other cities be-
came the centres of important industrial devel-
opment. Their population increased rapidly,
almost in American fashion, and at the end of
the 'seventies the Socialist movement began in
Poland.

Meanwhile the Russification process contin-
ued. The bureaucratic ideal, which mistakes a
dead uniformity for unity, went on its stupid
way, trying to mould every subject of the Empire
upon one pattern. " It is a sign of an evil and
rebellious nature if he happens to speak a lan-
guage or profess a religious creed different from

104

RUSSIA'S EUROPEAN DOOR

those of the ruling caste." The Polish insurrec-
tion had crystallised this dream of a Katkov, and
a Pobyedonostzev, into the brutal policy of a
Plehve. The Poles were suppressed in 1863. So
also were the hopes of the Russian liberals in
that year. In the name of patriotism, they
forgot their liberalism and crushed Polish
liberty.

The Russification process, in its two phases of
mechanically crowding out Poles with Russians,
and in attempting to kill the Polish language,
has had some " by products," probably not looked
for even by its advocates. The legal immunity
of the Russian element in Poland from abuses of
governmental and social rights has brought about
a complicity between police and wrongdoers of
all kinds which is almost incredible. It has,
moreover, made " everything in Poland which is
worth while doing an evasion." Of course, the
Poles teach their children Polish, despite the
law. "We study with a Russian book on top
of the desk and a Polish book beneath." And
so, also, with the other regulations looking
toward Russification. The Poles naturally vio-
late them all when they can do so undetected. It
is at the point of attempted forcible conversion
by the Orthodox Church, however, that Russifi-
cation arouses the hostility of the Polish peas-
ant. The proselyting activities of the Russian
Church are slowly but surely converting the Po-

105

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

lish peasant into an active anti-Russian political
element. ,

The Polish peasant, thanks to the efforts of the
native Roman Catholic clergy and the numerous
patriotic associations of to-day, is coming to read
and write his own language with ease. There
are many newspapers and books in Polish, but
these, of course, have a nationalistic tone.
Booksellers, however, who venture to sell Polish
literature are " discouraged " by the Russian
police, who fear — not, perhaps, without reason
— that Polish works will tend to foster the
nationalist sentiment. The result is that for
years practically the only reading matter within
the reach of the masses in Poland has been those
revolutionary and socialistic pamphlets, books
and papers printed in Polish, with which the rev-
olutionary and socialist committees manage to
flood the country. More than once it has been
suggested to the Imperial Department of Educa-
tion that great advantage would be derived from
the establishment in Poland of a system of public
libraries filled with serious " innocuous " works
printed in Polish, with means of circulating the
books, not only in the industrial centres, but also
in the villages. In this way the labouring man
and the peasant might have been weaned from
revolutionary literature, which now constitutes
their chief mental food. This might have been
done at a relatively small cost, especially if the

106

RUSSIA'S EUROPEAN DOOR

co-operation of the Catholic clergy had been ob-
tained. But, like many other excellent sugges-
tions, this remained hidden away in some pigeon-
hole at St. Petersburg. Now the Poles have won
in the language fight, and it is too late. The
Polish labouring classes, also, are rapidly ma-
turing politically, and they are among the most
radical antagonists of the bureaucratic regime.
The labour laws in force in " the Kingdom "
were devised by Russians to meet the require-
ments of labour in Russia proper, which are
entirely distinct and different from those in Po-
land. In Russia strikes have heretofore consti-
tuted a crime, and concerted action on the part
of labour against capital is called conspiracy.
Labour unions, such as we understand them here,
are compelled in Russia to take the form of ille-
gal secret societies, and these naturally develop
revolutionary tendencies. In fact, the relations
between labour in western Europe and in Poland
have become so close that the Polish working
classes have determined to submit no longer to
what they describe as the intolerable tyranny of
Russia's labour laws, which leave them com-
pletely at the mercy of their employers. This is
the chief cause of the recent labour riots at War-
saw, and in most of the industrial centres of Po-
land. The growth of socialism, moreover, has
given rise to incessant conflicts between Polish
workingmen and Russian police. Since 1878

107

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

workingmen in Warsaw have been arrested so
frequently that this has seemed to be the normal
activity of city life.

The Polish Nationalist movement was born in
the later 'eighties of the past century. It has set
a definite political programme. Then came the
National Democracy, at first revolutionary in
character, but latterly only extremely national-
istic. The National Democracy admits that it can-
not decide now on a definite programme looking
toward independence. Its immediate aim is " the
guidance of the people toward political activity
under the governmental conditions of the three
empires which divided the Polish Common-
wealth," and " the encouragement of the many-
sided achievement of the inner life of the Polish
people . . . under the shadow of the Cath-
olic Church."

You cannot emancipate yourself from politics
in Poland. It is a country forcibly subjected, and
you feel it when walking in the streets and in
the fashionable hotels. As soon as the language
edict was passed, the Poles began to study Polish
as never before. This edict they resisted pas-
sively until the Tzar ordered its repeal ( May 16,
1905) in Lithuania. Several months later it
was announced that, under orders from St.
Petersburg, the Inspector of Schools would there-
after permit the use of Polish as the language of
instruction in all the schools and universities of

108

RUSSIA'S EUROPEAN DOOR

Poland. In the six months following the edict of
religious toleration, more than 20,000 members
of the Orthodox Church, who had been made Or-
thodox by law, returned to the fold of the Roman
Church.

What do the Russian Poles want? There are
several political parties among them, with vary-
ing programmes and demands, from reconcilia-
tion, on the best terms possible, with the impe-
rial government and the Russian people, to ab-
solute complete independence.

The great mass of the people, however, would
probably be contented if governed constitution-
ally. The Pole is not submissive by nature, like
the Russian. He is a democrat, and believes
thoroughly in representative government. By
the terms of the Treaty of Vienna, in 1815, which
gave Russia her largest share of Poland, the
Tzar promised Europe to give the Poles a consti-
tution (in place of the one Suwarrow deposited
in the Kremlin as "a trophy taken from the
enemy " ) . He did, but when the Poles revolted
against the oppression of 1831, it was abolished.

All Poles dream of a future independence.
For the present, most of those living in the Rus-
sian Empire demand the recognition of national
rights, while remaining within the Empire. They
accept such concessions as they can get, but feel
that they cannot afford to antagonise the Rus-
sian government. The National Democracy,

109

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

while counselling moderation and discouraging
attempts at revolution, refuses to recognise the
right of the three partitioning powers to sepa-
rate loyalty. The Polish people are one, it in-
sists, since, in the words of a Prussian Pole,
" fancy lines on a geographical map do not de-
stroy the unity of a people." Some day, it is not
inconceivable, there may be a union of all Poles
in a separate state like Hungary, under Russian
suzerainty. It is held by the advocates of this
idea that the balm of kinship of race and that
underlying fellowship of temperament between
the Slav peoples would dull the memory of past
severity, and if Russia would but say the word,
would restore Polish autonomy and govern Po-
land according to- a constitution, as she solemnly
bound herself to do by the Treaty of Vienna, the
German powers would have difficulty in holding
their Polish provinces. Prussian rule is harder
than Muscovite for the Pole, and Austria's sys-
tem of taxation makes Russia's liberal commer-
cial policy seem very alluring.

What the Polish patriots want just now, how-
ever, is a few years of peace under at least a
European government — even though it be such
as that under which they live in Prussian Poland
— in order to educate all their countrymen up to
a national consciousness. Then will the Polish
people present the solid front of an enlightened,
homogeneous, patriotic race, and Europe will

110

RUSSIA'S EUROPEAN DOOR

sees its value as a buffer between Teuton and
Slav.

In the long-heralded Russian Parliament, the
first and second Duma, there were many ad-
vocates of granting autonomy to Poland. The
Polish group itself has held the balance of power.
The Russian intelligentcya is overwhelmingly
in favour of this. The extreme liberals go even
farther, many of them favouring a Polish Parlia-
ment, or Sejm, at Warsaw. The Russian peas-
ant has just begun to understand the character
and aims of his Polish brother, and Russian
Socialists and Constitutional Democrats have
begun to urge that, in the New Russia, Poland
must be autonomous. The old bureaucratic con-
ception of the Russian state in which the Great
Russians, or Muscovites, should be supreme, in
order that, with the ideal of " one church, one
state, one law," Russia might make her contri-
bution to civilisation as a homogeneous nation,
is slowly giving way to the new idea of the
" United Nations of Russia," with autonomy for
the different peoples, in place of the loyalty im-
posed — or attempted — by the police and the
army.

But, say the bureaucrats, if Polish becomes the
language in Poland, if it is taught in the schools,
by Poles, then there will be no places for Rus-
sians in Poland. So be it, reply the Poles. Let
us manage our own affairs. Let us have our

111

POLAND: THE "KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

Parliament in Warsaw, with Poles in the public
offices. Only Poles can understand Poles. With
a Polish Parliament in Warsaw, and Polish rep-
resentation in the Imperial Duma in St. Peters-
burg, most of the bitter resentment would die out
of the Polish heart, and Poland would become in
fact, what she has so far been only in name, an
integral part of the Russian Empire. Separatist
tendencies would disappear. Poland's commer-
cial interests bind her to Russia. More than one
prominent German and Russian writer has, dur-
ing recent years, declared, in the reviews of
both countries, that an autonomous Poland
could not, in any way, menace German or Rus-
sian national aims. A most vigorous article on
this subject recently appeared in the St. Peters-
burg Vyedomosti, from the pen of Professor Sobo-
lewski, a member of the Academy of the Capital.
The Japanese War, and the consequent weak-
ening of the bureaucratic regime, was highly sig-
nificant in Poland. By the peace of Portsmouth
an impetus was given to the revolutionary move-
ment. In Warsaw, then in a state of siege, the
famous manifesto of October 30, 1905, was hailed
as a positive assurance of the entrance of the
Polish people upon a new era of peaceful devel-
opment. "All Poland was seized with a single
aspiration — to begin a new life on the ruins of
the old regime. No one thought of separation."
The watchword of the great majority was:

112

RUSSIA'S EUROPEAN DOOR

"Autonomy, on the foundation created by the
Constitutional Assembly at Warsaw." This
watchword became the minimum upon which all
the serious factors in Polish life were willing to
unite. What will Russia's answer be? The re-
sponsibility must rest with the Duma.

The attitude of the Poles during Russia's war
with Japan was absolutely correct. They rioted
against mobilisation. But so did Russians. The
Poles had no greater dislike for the war than the
Russians themselves, although their industries
suffered more by it. The recent sanguinary
riots in Warsaw, in L6*dz, and elsewhere through-
out "the Kingdom" were economic and indus-
trial — not political. The war between Russia
and Japan wrought untold injury to Poland. As
the great working section of the Empire, Poland
was almost prostrated, not only by the stoppage
of trade, but by the loss of the productive labour
of her sons, who were gone to fight Russia's bat-
tles. As long as they wore the uniform and be-
longed to the army of the Tzar, to whom they had
sworn to be faithful, they passively fulfilled their
duties, but not one of them, even though he might
have the opportunity by rank or chance, ever
presented any individual ideas which could suc-
cessfully be put in practice by the army. They
only obeyed orders. A few of them deserted, just
as the Russians, Kurds, Cossacks, Finns, and
Jews deserted,

113

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

He has been but a dull reader of the world's
history who looks upon autocracy's recent fail-
ure in the Far East as a defeat, or even a serious
check, for the Russian people. The failure in
Manchuria was inevitable. Flogging and ban-
ishing the thoughtful students of yesterday who
are the officials of to-day, ignoring or imprison-
ing the best brains of the Empire and submitting
to a horde of self-seeking, dissolute place-hunters
— this is not the proper preparation for great na-
tional expansion. But the Russian people, or,
rather, Russian society, and the Russian chinov-
nik are not identical. Look at Russia's history
for a moment.

One hot day in August, three hundred and
twenty-two years ago, a Tartar freebooter,
searching for grass for his horse along the banks
of the River Irtish, saw in the shallows the
corpse of a warrior, clad in a rich coat of mail,
with a golden eagle on its breast. He bore it to
the captain of the nearest military post, and then
found that it was the body of the famous and
terrible ataman Yermak, the Volga robber
and pirate, Hetman or Chief of the Don Cos-
sacks, who became the founder of Russia's Asiatic
empire, the man who first crossed the Urals to
take Siberia, who first saw the potential destiny
of the Slav race, and led it out on its great east-
ern exodus.

Russia is the " biggest fact " (after the United
114

RUSSIA'S EUROPEAN DOOR

States) with which the Europe of to-day has to
reckon, and that fact is becoming more momen-
tous every year. Russia is the only country in
moribund old Europe that is growing and ex-
panding. If ever the word "coming" could be
justly applied to a country, it can be so applied
to her.

Russia is the only country that ever expanded
eastward, and she did so only because she was
effectually blocked from going farther west. For
years Peter the Great sought to obtain " a win-
dow open toward Europe," but Europe kept him
back with the strength of desperation. Russia
will yet have her window. On ground torn from
Sweden, the imperial city of Peter looks with
steady, relentless eyes over Scandinavia to an
ice-free port on the coast of Norway, and smooths
out the way by swallowing and digesting the
Finns. She has not forgotten the wonderful City
of Constantine in the south. But for the com-
bined might of the West, long ago the Russian
eagles would have floated from the mosques of
the Golden Horn. But, in the words of a Rus-
sian diplomat, " When a pear is ready and ripe,
it falls of its own accord. Why spend energy in
attempting to hasten the inevitable?"

While she waits, with century-long patience,
for Constantinople to fall at her feet, the Mus-
covite empire keeps a tireless eye sweeping her
vast European frontier — from where she touches

115

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

Sweden on the frozen Arctic to the Iron Gates
of the Danube, scarcely six hours, as the swallow
flies, from the sentinel on the Yildiz Kiosk. On
all points of the dike which western Europe has
built against her, Russia presses like a mighty
flood. Every year she moves a little forward,
now baffled, retiring a little, now advancing, mov-
ing along the lines of least resistance, like water
turned back at one point, at last inevitably find-
ing its level. More and more Scandinavian
names appear on the map of " Russian territory "
at the far north, while Pan-Slavism is the solvent
for the widely-differing, hostile, ethnic elements
of the Balkans.

Temporarily turned back on the west, the Mus-
covite went eastward and found his destiny, in
accordance with that blind racial impulse which
makes him kin to the Oriental peoples. " After
all," confessed the editor of one of the great
dailies of the Russian capital, " after all, we
Russians are more than half a yellow people our-
selves. Our destiny is in Asia."

The story of Russian expansion is one of the
most wonderful in the history of nations. The
long march of the Russian from the Urals
toward the rising sun is even more soul-stirring
and full of romance than the American pilgrim-
age to the setting sun ; more wonderful, perhaps,
because it was made before the advent of steam
and the telegraph.

116

RUSSIA'S EUROPEAN DOOR

It would not be easy to condense the history
of any western European nation into a para-
graph; but with Russia it is not so difficult.
The centuries of Mongol domination, of Norman
ascendency, and those of subjection to the petty
princelets and grand dukes of Muscovy, seem
blind, but they prepared the people for their mis-
sion. From the days of Peter, when the peasant
soldiers fell over their long cloaks in battle with
the Swedes, and were driven back with the
knouts of their king to crush their conquerors, to
the humbling of China, the defiance of combined
Europe, and the " penetration " of Manchuria, it
is but two hundred years.

Over all Russia is stamped a purpose. One
sees it the first hour over the frontier. It is a
purpose to conquer nature and to build up a
powerful and homogeneous people. The present
political and social crisis will pass. The Rus-
sian people will remain.

In the Russia of to-day, vast and amoeba-like
as she yet is, two powerful influences, aside from
conscious political effort, are at work. These are
the country estate (the peasant farm), and the
railroad — the first two representing the old order,
and uncouth, protoplasmic Russia of the cen-
turies gone ; the third standing for progress, and
slowly but inevitably binding the empire of the
Tzar to the world and life of our day. There are,
in fact, two distinct Russias — the Russia of the

117

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

estate and the Russia of the towns, which means
the Russia of the railroad and its influences. The
tourist rarely sees the Russia of the estates. The
Russian is not proud of being an agriculturist,
and very seldom refers to his country place. Per-
haps he does not care to acknowledge how hard
he has to work, or to admit the difficulties with
which he has to contend. A whole chapter can
be read out of the fact that the Russian word for
the labour of the farmer, especially during har-
vest, is strada — from the verb stradat, to suffer
pain or anguish.

Life on a country estate or in a peasant vil-
lage is still patriarchal, the form of life so deeply
implanted in all the original Slav and Turanian
races. The large estate was, and still continues
to be, in certain sections of the Empire, a world
in itself. Its immense size is only equalled by
its almost pitiful isolation. The peasant vil-
lage is even more isolated.

Near the borders of Courland I visited an
estate of seventy thousand acres, the next house
being three miles away, and the house in ques-
tion thirty-eight miles from the railroad. The
aristocratic feudal idea and regime cannot but
obtain under such conditions. Much of modern
comfort — indeed, a surprising amount — is to be
found on this place, but the life of to-day touches
it at but very few points, and at very wide inter-
vals. Contentment with more or less primitive

118

RUSSIA'S EUROPEAN DOOR

methods (because no others are accessible), fall-
ing into the ruts of tradition and the stereotyped
way of doing things, virtual imprisonment afar
from the restless, curious, inventive life of the
rest of the world, opposition to material prog-
ress, which, while depriving it of some of its an-
cient privileges, confers no adequate return —
because not ready to receive it — this life must
needs become stereotyped. It is so difficult to
travel that provincialism in life and thought is
inevitable.

The railroad comes along and upsets all this.
Originally a military necessity, it is fast becom-
ing the artery of trade. It brings the latest in-
vention; it makes travel easy; it broadens the
view. The estate uses the railroad to send its
surplus to market, and the estate people must be
up to date in general, because of the stern rivalry
of life which is now brought to their very doors.
New social problems based on hitherto unimag-
ined congestion of population come up ; military
operations are made easier; the telegraph tells
what the rest of the world is doing and say-
ing, to a simple folk which scarcely knew of
the existence of a world outside of their
fields.

Conceived and brought forth in the heart of a
continent, surrounded on every side by other and
generally hostile states, the age-long struggle of
the Russian Empire has been to secure an outlet

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POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

and water-front. It is that for which she fought
Japan. Shut out from the possibility of it in
Europe, she is now actually succeeding in Asia.
Vladivostok, literally " the Dominator of the
East," is the extreme monument-stone of the tre-
mendous migration, the epic of which will have
for its heroes the pioneer chieftain Yermak and
the great Muraviev. These two names sum up
the history of the Russian conquest of Siberia.

The country estate and the railroad in Russia
are coming together. The latter is bringing the
former to the world of to-day. The railroad has
already taken the Russian flag from the Neva to
the Pacific and it will lead the expansion still
further.

The Russian believes in his mission, and
holds that to be the possession or control of
all Asia. If his diplomacy is more subtle and
less scrupulous than that of other nations, his
large ambitions are natural, and, in a certain
sense, legitimate. One may doubt whether their
scale is not too colossal for the welfare of the
world.

The desire of Russia, as the political leader of
the Slav peoples, for a warm water port is, how-
ever, instinctive. It is the keynote of Russian
foreign policy and has been for more than two
centuries. The substitution of a constitutional
government for the autocracy would not change
this policy. On the contrary, the more efficient

120

RUSSIA'S EUROPEAN DOOR

the government of Russia may become in the
future, the more certain is she to attain the object
of her ambition in the end. It makes no material
difference whether the warm water port be in the
Dardanelles, the Persian Gulf, or the China Seas.
The united aim of one hundred and fifty millions
of white people of the North is bound to be real-
ised some day.

And the new, young Russia of the future, what
of her? When she emerges in the greatness of
a gigantic world-task accomplished, when she ap-
pears in the beauty of suffering endured — as the
Poles have endured for generations — for the sake
of the highest human ideals, the brightest hope
the world can have for her is that she may real-
ise the Anglo-Saxon ideal of a free state within
which many tongues, many creeds, many races,
shall dwell in harmony and with full liberty of
thought and action.

The more liberal and democratic Russia be-
comes the more reactionary her neighbouring
nations will show themselves, and the less will
be the tendency of Poland to separate from Rus-
sia. The ties that unite the two peoples will be
the closer the more Poland begins to look upon
democratic Russia as her defender. But, neces-
sary as Russia is to Poland for her defence, still
more necessary is Poland to Russia for the lat-
ter^ protection against Germany. The larger
the amount of autonomy Russia grants her Polish

121

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

subjects the greater their gratitude and the bet-
ter they will serve as a buffer against the Teuton.
A free, rejuvenated " United Nations of Russia "
would be most likely to find a reunified and
happy Poland ready to enter.

123

VI

THE GEOGRAPHICAL CENTRE OF
EUROPE

WARSZAWA!" shouted the guard
at half-past nine one evening in
August, as we steamed into a beau-
tiful white city, splendidly lit by electricity and
gridironed closely by tram lines. " Are all large
Russian cities as handsome as this? " I asked
my seat companion, a gentleman whose French
was Parisian, — or Slavonic, for all Slavs speak
nearly perfect French. He looked at me in
surprise. " This is not Russia," he said ; " this
is Poland." And there you have the whole mat-
ter, after nearly two centuries of the " benevolent
assimilation " of Pan-Slavism. Warsaw is Po-
land, and Russia is a foreign country, off at a
distance. Approaching Warsaw from the Vis-
tula, one may see where the city has built its
defences, — toward the East. Thence came the
enemy, the Mongol, the Russian. Moscow is Rus-
sia, Kiev is Russia. Odessa and St. Petersburg
are Europe. But Warsaw is not in Russia; it
is in Poland. The government on the Neva may
designate " Krolestwo Polskie," the old kingdom

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POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

of Poland, as the governments of the Vistula, and
deny that the Poles exist as a national force, but
this same government finds it necessary to keep
ready a garrison of 200,000 troops to overawe a
city of 900,000 people, and, somehow, the guns
of the citadel are turned, not toward the German
frontier, the only point from which a foreign
enemy could be expected to come, but toward the
streets and shops of the third most populous town
of the Empire. Poland does not exist officially,
but it is, if dead, certainly a very lively corpse.

If you draw a circle about the entire continent
you will find that the former Polish capital is the
geographical centre of Europe. It is now one
of the busiest, liveliest of European cities, and it
is destined in the future to become one of the
great world-centres of population. The comple-
tion of the Trans-Siberian Railroad brings Asia
to the very door of Europe, and Warsaw is that
door. The newly constructed line ends at Mos-
cow, but Warsaw is the real western terminus.
Moscow, more than half Asiatic, belongs to an
Eastern, Byzantine civilisation. Warsaw is
Latin, Occidental, the first great really European
city on the steel arteries of trade that throb be-
tween Berlin and Vienna, St. Petersburg and
Moscow. Besides being a distributing point for
what Asia wants to send to Europe, she is a great
manufacturing centre. Her factories supply all
of Russia. She is the Birmingham and Sheffield

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The GEOGRAPHICAL CENTRE of EUROPE

of the Empire. All the articles de Paris, all the
" galanterie " and goods " made in Germany "
bought in Russia come from Warsaw. More-
over, she is now making a bid for the trade of
the Far East. She makes sugar, leather, cotton,
wool, iron, gold and silverware, and shoes for
the rest of the continent. She sends more than
half a million dollars' worth of beet sugar alone
every year to America.

The outlying neighbour of Warsaw, Lodz,
known as the Polish Manchester, is fast gaining
on its English rival. This great manufacturing
centre, which stepped from the rank of village to
that of city in two decades, has thousands of
spindles which turn out cotton for the world.
The boll comes on cars from north of Samarkand
— what Americans know as Siberia. Almost all
of L6dz's half million people help turn it into
useful fabrics for the Tzar's empire. The indus 1 -
trial and commercial impulse that has charac-
terised the Russia of the present, is perhaps, no-
where more strikingly evident than in what was
the old kingdom of Poland, and particularly in
Warsaw, still the capital, the head of the race, as
Cracow is the heart. Warsaw helps distribute
the overland trade from the East. In her shops,
whose clerks speak Polish, Russian, French, and
German, and sometimes English, is every variety
of product direct from the Orient.

In Warsaw the Pole is at home. He and he
125

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

alone is the citizen. In society, in life generally,
the Russian is nothing. He is bourgeois. The
Pole is the aristocrat. In Germany, and to a
degree in Austria, the Pole belongs to an imma-
ture stage of political civilisation. In Russia he
is the representative of culture, of the superior
race, and even his military master confesses it.

Within the Russian Empire dwells the marrow
of the Polish nation, the Polish aristocracy, and
that industrious middle class which has become
rich. There are twelve million Poles pinned to
Russia by bayonets, is the way a Warsaw Pole
recently summed up the so-called success of the
Russification process.

There are many traditions concerning the
origin of Warsaw. One of the oldest is the ac-
count which says that, in the year 1108, a Bo-
hemian family of the name of Varszovski, sus-
pected of treason to its king, was banished from
Bohemia. It settled on the banks of the River
Vistula, and the growth of centuries has made of
its little settlement the city of Warsaw. On the
north shore of the Vistula is the original seat of
this family, now a suburb of Warsaw, and known
as Praga, in memory of the Bohemian capital.
Prague. Then the princes of Mazovia took pos-
session of the growing town, and when the last
of this Mazovian line died, Zygmunt, the Polish
king, made Warsaw his fortified residence.

There is something in Warsaw that seems
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The GEOGRAPHICAL CENTRE of EUROPE

familiar to the traveller that knows western
Europe — at first he is at a loss to say just what.
Then it comes back — the touch of Paris, the
light gaiety and pleasure-seeking, the beautiful
parks and splendid drives, the fine theatres and
seemingly inexhaustible capacity of the people
for amusement — almost all that makes Paris
Paris is characteristic also of Warsaw. But
Warsaw has, in addition, a flavour all her
own.

Landmark hunting begins with the Stare
Miasto. This old city market is in much the
same condition as it was nearly four hundred
years ago. Every visitor pauses to examine No.
31 Wanski Dunajec Ulica (Narrow Danube)
Street. This is the oldest building in the city,
and its classical bay-window is one of the best
preserved specimens in Europe. Near here is the
wine-shop of Fouquier, where (so Sienkiewicz
tells us) Zagloba and Wolodyjowski drank the
mio'd (mead) so dear to the heart of the doughty
old knight. The visitor, of course, also drinks
mi6d at Fouquier's.

How much these Poles have suffered and are
suffering day by day! The old royal palace, in
front of which the recent massacres of strikers oc-
curred, is weighted down with tragic, agonising
memories. On the great balcony, to the right of
where the Russian sentinel now treads day and
night, Stanislaw Poniatowski, the last Polish

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POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

king, looked out upon the square along the Vis-
tula, and saw the soldiers of Marshal Suwarow
slaughter 14,000 Poles. Here, in 1863, 50,000
Russians camped and made " order " by firing
with cannon on men and women who knelt in the
snow and sang the national hymn. I tried to
enter and look over this palace, but found it so
full of Russian soldiers that visiting was exceed-
ingly difficult, even with an official pass. On
coming out of the court-yard I found my way
across the square barred. A Russian army corps,
including 4,000 Cossacks and the famous
mounted infantry regiment organised by Alex-
ander III., was returning from a review prepara-
tory to leaving for the seat of war in the East.
The force of Cossacks looked formidable. Ei.ch
man carried an 18-foot lance resembling one of
the celebrated Cromwellian pikes, a short sword
with a wicked, half-Turkish crook to the blade,
a long carbine, and the cruel Cossack whip, the
most terrible of the four.

The detachment stopped directly in front of
the monument in the palace square to the Polish
king, Zygmunt. This column, says the inscrip-
tion on its base, was erected to the memory of
Zygmunt III. by his son Wladyslaw IV. In Zyg-
munt's reign, the inscription says further, Mos-
cow was captured by the Poles and Prince
Wladyslaw proclaimed Tzar of Muscovy. The
inscription does not refer to the fact, but.aH this

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reminds one that Philaret, the father of the first
Romanov, was carried a prisoner to Poland and
kept there for nine years, for refusing to ac-
knowledge Wladyslaw as king. It was significant
to recall this fact again when, standing in the
Red Square, in front of the Kremlin, in Moscow,
I read beneath the great group of statuary in its
centre : " To the memory of the Aristocrat and
the Peasant who, in 1613, saved Russia from the
Poles." The Cossacks halted right beneath this
Zygmunt column, and the humble citizen of the
latter-day Warsaw stepped nervously aside. So
history mutates.

Warsaw is like Paris in one other respect.
Apparently it has " no visible means of support."
The sole aim and occupation of its citizens seems
to be amusing themselves. Of course, this is only
in appearance, as it is in the case of Paris. * A
Yarsovie," said the first Napoleon, in 1810, "le
monde s'amuse toujours, sans cesse. Yarsovie
est une petite Paris" To thoroughly enjoy War-
saw, understand it, and appreciate it, one must
enjoy good music, understand good painting and
good acting, and be able to appreciate fine public
gardens, splendid horsemanship, good eating, and
— and beautiful women. The subtle, cultured
taste of the Poles is especially conspicuous in
Warsaw in all of these: in the music they hear,
the painting and drama they see, the parks and
horses they enjoy, and the fascinating women

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POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

who make their streets and drawing-rooms so
alluring.

During the summer and fall months all War-
saw goes every day to the Saski Ogrdd — the
Saxon Gardens — which is complete as a park,
and has, besides, a summer theatre. In the win-
ter young Warsaw flocks to the Saski Ogr6d to
skate. On Saturday afternoons, Sundays, and
holidays it is really difficult to force one's way
through the moving mass of promenaders. If
the visitor is wise, he will go with the crowd,
which will, like as not, take him out to the other
park, Lazienki. This is a little Versailles, with
an exquisite palace formerly used as a bath by
the princes of Mazovia, the park being their Lunt-
ing-ground. One of the later Polish kings re-
modelled the palace and the Tzar Alexander I.
redecorated it. It faces on a most beautiful little
lake, and near by is an open-air theatre with a
stone amphitheatre for more than a thousand
spectators.

When Sobieski returned from his triumph at
Vienna he brought with him a number of Turk-
ish prisoners, whom he set to work on the park
and palace, built by Queen Bona, which he was
rearranging for his French wife, Marysienka.
This is WillanoV — Villa Nuova — just beyond the
limits of the present city. A great white quad-
rangle of stone with statues at every convenient
point and paintings on the outside walls — it is

130

THE OLD ROYAL PALACE OF THE POLISH KINGS IN

WARSAW.

r

<**

5-

1

THE PALACE IN THE LAZIENKI PARK IN WARSAW-

The GEOGRAPHICAL CENTRE of EUROPE

an impressive palace, and the park, which is said
to have been laid out by Sobieski's own hand, is
kept like a drawing-room by the Countess Bran-
icka, who now occupies the palace.

One of the gayest corners of Warsaw is the
Krakowskie Przedmiescie — the Suburb of Cracow
Street — in front of the Hotel de Europe. Most
of the churches, newspaper offices, and public
buildings of the city are located on this busy
thoroughfare. At night it is a blaze of light
and a whirl of life and motion. Hundreds of
cabs dart about — and in Warsaw the cocher
drives as swiftly and recklessly as the swallow
flies — and the elegantly dressed throng passes
and repasses. The street is literally lined with
cukiernias — those attractive little tea and cake
houses which were originally an exclusively
Italian institution, but brought into Poland dur-
ing the Italian immigration. There the Varso-
vian sits and sips his glass of tea and munches
his bit of cake, while he skims the latest news-
paper from Paris, London, Berlin. The cukier-
nia is to him what the cafe is to the Parisian,
and more than the beer-garden is to the Ger-
man.

There is a nervous quickness about the Pole, a
staccato nimbleness of spirit, which makes him
again resemble the Frenchman. He is exceed-
ingly fond of light and sociability, and these little
tea-houses which line the streets of Warsaw are

131

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

immensely popular with him. They are scarcely
second to his home.

The Varsovian calls his boulevards "aleja,"
and it is along the Aleja Ujazdowska and Jero-
zolimska that fashionable, pleasure-loving War-
saw comes out most strongly. Here the elegant
equipages pass in one continuous stream, beauti-
ful women in dazzling costumes, handsome army
officers, aristocracy, bourgeoisie, demi-monde —
all dashing along these splendid avenues from
early afternoon till late into the night. Even
Paris cannot surpass the former Polish capital
in this respect.

Warsaw is more than a city of music and mu-
sicians. Every Varsovian is a musical connois-
seur. Warsaw has been the home of Paderewski,
Sliwinski, and the Reszkes. Its conservatory is
world-famous.

The Poles are born actors. Even after Vi-
enna, Berlin, and Paris, one can find new beauties
and harmonies on the Warsaw stage. This stage
is the place to see artistically perfect dancing.
The polonez, the mazur, and the krakowiak, the
three national Polish dances, are the race in
epitome. The polonez gives the colour, ceremony,
politeness, grace, suppleness, and rhythm of the
Polish lady and gentleman. It is the aristocracy
personified. The mazur gives the agility, sup-
pleness, almost recklessness, and, withal, the
gallantry of the szlachta, or landed gentry. The

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The GEOGRAPHICAL CENTRE of EUROPE

krakowiak shows the quick, gusty, passionate al-
ternations between passivity and wild abandon,
so characteristic of the Polish peasant. The
music seems to be part and parcel, bone and
sinew, of the dance itself, and the colour of the
costumes is picturesquely and artistically perfect.

The art impulse of the past twenty-five
years that has resulted in the appearance of a
distinctively Polish school of painting, looks to
Warsaw as the home of many of its imitators.

The Sienkiewicz house, in Spolna street, has
long been the shrine of literary Poland. War-
saw has been the home of Alexander Glowacki
(better known by his nom de plume of " Boleslaw
Prus"), who has been captivating Germany by
his classical novels ; of Waclaw Sieroszewski, the
Polish Pierre Loti; of Maryan Gawalewicz,
author, and editor of the Kurjer Warszawski,
and of Eliza Orzesko, author of " The Argo-
nauts," recently translated into English.

The aristocracy of the old kingdom of Poland,
among the oldest and most blue-blooded of
Europe, takes an active interest in the social,
moral, and intellectual betterment of Warsaw.
The Lubomirskis, Potockis, Zamoyskis, and Rad-
ziwills, the oldest and most aristocratic families
of Poland, each has a representative in philan-
thropic and educational work in the city.

The Poles think very highly of their physicians,
and justly. The medical profession is unusually

133

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

well represented in all advancement and public
enterprise in Poland. One of the best known
presidents of the Warsaw Society of Fine Arts,
which numbers more than 5,000 members, was a
physician, Dr. Karol Benni. It was a physician,
Dr. Chalubinski, who founded the great Polish
health resort, Zakopane, in the Carpathian Moun-
tains. Dr. Jordan, who established the unique
park for children in Cracow, which bears his
name, was a citizen of the widest reputation. Dr.
Jakubowski, at one time Rector of the Cracow
University, founded a hospital for poor children
irrespective of their religion.

Two details of the vast scheme of the Russian
government to minify the evils of intemperance
are worked out very picturesquely in Warsaw.
Local temperance committees supervise a popular
theatre and a " sociological park," supported by
government subsidy. The theatre gives perform-
ances for merely nominal prices — the maximum
being sixty kopecks, about thirty cents.

Here to the accompaniment of an excellent or-
chestra, popular plays are given every night in
the year, all with temperance morals. The writer
attended one performance. The hall was
crowded with intelligent looking, fairly well
dressed people of the peasant and lower bour-
geois class. The play rendered was simply an-
other variety of the old story. The husband, led
away by jovial companions, spends all his money

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The GEOGRAPHICAL CENTRE of EUROPE

for drink, even the little hoard the hard-working
mother has laid aside for her sick child. The
child is finally taken to a hospital, where the
parents cannot see it. Through the intervention
and good offices of a kind, temperance gentle-
man, the husband reforms, the child is restored
to its parents, and every one is happy. Of course,
all the scenery and accessories are Russian (or
Polish), and the people see before them a bit of
their own life, with its consequences. The act-
ing is excellent, and the audience in complete
sympathy with the performance. The state of-
ficial who is in charge of these plays declared to
me that they are growing in popularity every
year, and that a decided change for good is to
be noted since they were begun. These plays are
now given in Polish, but occasionally a Russian
play is presented. The radical Polish party fear
that these performances will be used to further
the Russification process. Consequently, the
local support is not as strong as it might be.

In Praga, one of the suburbs, the Sunday enter-
tainment is perhaps unique in the world. The
day I visited the park there were between 32,000
and 33,000 people enjoying its amusements. The
entrance fee is ten kopecks (about five American
cents), and for this sum one has the privilege of
every feature the park presents — music, side
shows, theatres, merry-go-rounds, swings, and a

number of games especially arranged for the little

135

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

ones. All sorts of cakes and fruit are vended, as
well as a large variety of soft drinks, red lemon-
ade, " pop," etc. But not a drop of alcoholic
liquor is allowed.

It is an interesting sight to the student of
sociology to walk about the well-kept paths.
There are no " keep off the grass " signs in this
park. All the Slav love of colour, music, and
pleasure can be seen on every hand. There are
eight dancing pavilions, where the stout, healthy,
rosy-cheeked peasant gins dance the Polish
dances. One may see soldiers in white uniforms
and great black top-boots whirling around, often
two heavy fellows embracing each other and
fairly beaming with delight. At the accented
note of the music, all stamp vigorously on the
wooden floor, with a resounding noise. Acro-
batic shows, Punch and Judy pavilions, " post-
office," games whereby, for the extra sum of three
kopecks, the peasant lad may address a card to
an unknown girl, and, in the course of an hour,
be regularly presented to his partner for the
evening's festivities; fireworks, a kitchen spot-
lessly clean where, for a merely nominal sum,
you can get an excellent meal — these and other
features make an afternoon spent in the park
exceedingly interesting. The very little ones
have sections devoted to them exclusively, where
they play games, sing songs, make sandcakes, ac-
cording to model — all under the direction of a

136

The GEOGRAPHICAL CENTRE of EUROPE

trained kindergartner. The parents must see
that the youngsters are clean and presentable;
must bring them and come for them when the
exercises are over.

Two thousand children, of twelve years or
under, were playing in the park on that Sunday.
An efficient fire department and ambulance serv-
ice complete the equipment of the park. These
two features — the theatre and the park — cost the
government $750,000 in one year.

This picture of the old Polish capital is the
one I prefer to have remain in my memory —
rather than that showing the great seething cen-
tre of industrial and social revolt which, during
the past two years, has suffered so much bloody,
vicarious agony for Russia's misadventure in the
Far East.

137

HOW VIENNA ESCAPED THE TURK

FATHER iWOJNOWSKI, the militant
priest, who is one of the most lovable
characters in Sienkiewicz's novel, " On
the Field of Glory," tells the young men leaving
for the campaign : " War is abhorrent to Heaven,
a sin against mercy, a stain on Christian na-
tions." But a war against the Turks must be
excepted, "God put the Polish people on horse-
back, and turned their breasts eastward ; by that
same act He showed them His will and their
calling. He knew why He chose us for that posi-
tion, and put others behind our shoulders ; hence,
if we wish to fulfil His command and our mis-
sion with worthiness, we must face that vile sea,
and break its waves with our bosoms."

This is a Pole's conception of the national
mission of the Polish people. And no better il-
lustration of how ruler and people held to this
view can be found than the campaign of King
John III. Sobieski against the Turks, to rescue
Vienna, and gain a victory for the Cross over the
Crescent It is a thrilling, dramatic story, be-
ginning with the election of a King of Poland.

138

HOW VIENNA ESCAPED THE TURK

From the corner of one of the oldest buildings
off the Rynek of Cracow hang several ponderous
iron chains. I asked their history. " They are
a sign of one of the reasons that have contribu-
ted to our downfall as a nation," said a Polish
gentleman sadly. " Those chains used to be
stretched across the road when a Diet was con-
vened, lest the excitable populace break in upon
the deliberations, especially at an election, and
also lest the equally excitable deputies break out
and fight with the people. Alas for our turbu-
lence and unruliness! I almost wish the rever-
ence for tradition, which is so characteristic of
our people, did not demand that these unpleasant
mementos be kept here on public view."

One of the most turbulent Diets in Polish
history, the one that elected the Hetman John
Sobieski King of the Commonwealth, was held in
Warsaw in April, 1674. What was once the
throne room of the splendid palace at Willanow,
in the suburbs of Warsaw, the room in which
Sobieski died, is now a chapel, its walls covered
with relics of the mighty warrior. Near by is
a fine collection of books. From these, and with
the assistance of Count Ledochowski (whose
brother was then secretary of the Propaganda at
Rome), who has a splendid museum of antiqui-
ties, trappings, and documents of the days of
Poland's glory, I can perhaps paint a mind
picture of that memorable, extraordinary scene:

139

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

a Polish Diet electing a king. The event is so
dramatic that one can imagine it being actually
re-enacted before his eyes.

Eighty thousand people have come to Warsaw,
and are gathered on the plain of Wola. In the
city all the shops are closed, and many of the
houses have barred their doors. Great numbers
of Jews are moving to other parts of the country,
for they know how near to a battle a Polish elec-
tion is likely to come. The streets are full of
gorgeously uniformed troops, brilliant magnates,
palatines, castellans, dignitaries, and officials
from all portions of the Commonwealth. Foreign
ambassadors and members of a hundred different
ecclesiastical orders fairly blaze with decora-
tions. Twelve vast tents have been erected on
the plain, and 100,000 horses are stabled near by.
For six weeks the Diet deliberates, listening to
the claims of the foreign rulers who aspire to the
Polish crown. Intrigue and conspiracy are ram-
pant It is Lithuania against Warsaw. In the
main tent, a vast circular canvas, supported by
a single pole, 6,000 persons sit and listen to the
orations delivered in favour of this monarch, that
great lord, the other famous general. Adjourn-
ments for prayers and for tournament and joust
are frequent.

At last the great moment comes. The Senators
and other delegates are weary of the long wait
The principal candidates are Prince Charles of

140

HOW VIENNA ESCAPED THE TURK

Lorraine, the Austrian candidate, Philip of Neu-
burg, France's choice, and the Prince of Cond6,
the choice of the Poles. Austria and France are
in the heat of their great rivalry for European
leadership and the crown of Poland is one of the
pawns in the game. Ambassadors from Spain,
England, and Holland speak for Charles. More-
over, he is supported by Eleanor, widow of the
last Polish king. She openly declares in his
favour. If he is triumphant she will marry him
and once more be queen.

Presently there is a commotion among the
magnificent generals seated near the centre of the
assemblage. A stout man, in the resplendent
uniform of Hetman, arises and begins to address
the company — a strong, fine figure, with a clean,
powerful face and a voice of thunder. He sub-
mits the name of the Prince of Conde as candi-
date of the Opposition. In a short but vigorous
speech he completely demolishes the claims of
Neuburg and Prince Charles, and declares that
Conde, and Conde only, shall be the choice of the
Diet A Lithuanian noble in the rear of the hall
" calls for the question." The interest is intense.
It is like a modern political convention. The
voting is by wojewodztwos (electoral districts),
each delegation answering from beneath its own
banner. The spokesman for the first registers its
vote for Charles, then withdraws it. The speaker,
Stanislaus Jablonowski, Palatine of Podolia and

141

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

Ukraine, again springs to his feet and shouts:
" No more foreigners. Give us a Polish hero for
King." " Speech ! " cry the delegates, and he
continues :

"Poland, the rampart of Christendom, must
have a glorious name to lead her armies. Cond6
is the first captain of the age. I knelt before my
God this morning to ask for light on the discus-
sion which is to end the widowhood of my mother-
country. I know that in naming Conde I would
have no cause for remorse — his fame answers for
him. Nevertheless, neither this man nor his rivals
shall obtain my vote. I demand that a Pole
reign over Poland. If our ancestors sometimes
raised a foreign prince to our throne, it was be-
cause they feared the dangers of rivalry among
equals. We have not this danger to avoid now,
for the eyes and the thoughts of each and all of
you are fixed on one and only one among us.

" There is a man in our midst who, having
saved the Republic many times by his counsels
and his sword, and won for it the respect of the
world, is regarded by all the world, as well as by
ourselves, as the greatest, the first son of Poland.

" Poles, one final consideration determines
me! If we are deliberating here in peace over
the choice of a king; if the most illustrious dy-
nasties in the world are soliciting our suffrages ;
if our power has grown ; if our freedom has been
maintained ; if, in short, we still have a country

142

HOW VIENNA ESCAPED THE TURK

— to whom are we indebted for it? Call to mind
the wonders of Slobodyszoze, Podhaice, Kalusz,
and above all, of Chocim ! — those immortal monu-
ments of glory, and choose for King [and here he
raises his voice to a shout] — John Sobieski."

The foes of Sobieski, however, are obstinate,
and the decision wavers. The presiding officer
announces, "No election; adjournment till to-
morrow." But the people are tired, and want an
end to the debates. "Vote, vote," cry the dele-
gates. To this, Sobieski himself objects. Rising
to his feet, he shouts :

" To this I am opposed. Remember the na»
tion for which you are about to choose a head —
the freest on the face of the earth. Such haste
would ill accord with liberty. God forbid that I
should accept a Crown conferred at the expense
of a single infringement of the public right, or
by the constraint or suppression of a single vote.
I would rather remain a subject all my life, a
thousand times rather, than rule over one of my
fellow-citizens against his will. It would, in-
deed, be unworthy of me to ascend the throne in
this furtive manner, at nightfall, and before any
time had been granted for the reconsideration of
so sudden a resolution. I demand that no fur-
ther action be taken to-night, and in demanding
this I declare that should there be no other dis-
senting voice, I will oppose it with my VETO."

But his speech wins him the crown. The con-

143

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

vention goes wild, and the stampede begins.
Lithuania goes over to Sobieski's side; other
delegations follow, and he is finally elected by
acclamation, as John III.

The new king greatly surprised the Diet by
informing it that he did not care for any formal
ceremony of coronation. It was too expensive,
he said, and would take too long, especially as
the Turks were already advancing toward the
Polish frontier. The Diet, accordingly, pro-
claimed him king from the moment of electing
him.

King John soon began to have considerabla
trouble with his wife, Marya Kazimiera, or Mary-
sienka, as he called her. This lady was little
more than a fascinating adventuress. A French
protege" of Marya Ludwika, one of the former
queens, to satisfy her ambition she married Count
Zamoyski. On his death she captured Sobieski,
the Hetman and Grand Marshal of Poland. The
refusal of Louis of France to make her family
peers of the realm incurred her bitter enmity and
caused much trouble for Poland.

Sobieski himself was devoted to science and
chivalry, and was really one of the most progres-
sive of Polish monarchs, but almost everything he
did his wife exerted her very best to undo. While
he was fighting Turk and Tartar, in defence of
the Commonwealth, she, ambitious and rapacious
by nature and training, was fostering discontent

144

HOW VIENNA ESCAPED THE TURK

at home, and favouring everything reactionary
proposed by Sobieski's enemies. The cabinet
that she used is in the palace at WillanoV, and
it shows her to have been an exceedingly vain
woman. One could imagine her sitting before it
and admiring her own portrait, which is set at
every convenient point.

Fate made Sobieski a foil for the ambition of
Louis XIV. of France, and the latter's hatred for
Austria kept Poland in constant war with all her
neighbours, particularly the Turks. But it gave
Sobieski the great triumph of his life. In the
Vatican there is one of the greatest of historical
pictures, " John Sobieski before Vienna," painted
with wonderful fidelity to detail by Jan Matejko.
It shows Sobieski on horseback at the moment of
the Polish king's great glory, receiving the plaud-
its of the citizens and the army after his rescue
of Vienna from the Turks.

It had been a long Turkish triumph. The Sul-
tan of Turkey had been proclaimed King of Up-
per Hungary, and with his commander came the
Khan of Tartary, various Hungarian chiefs,
and the great horde. Kara Mustapha, the Mos-
lem general, had 300,000 men when he came to
besiege Vienna. The Austrian capital lay de-
fenceless. The Emperor Leopold fell back in
panic before the advancing host, and Europe be-
came alarmed. Not only the Empire, but Chris-
tianity itself was at stake. The Pope sent an

145

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

envoy calling upon Sobieski, in the name of
Christianity, to go against the Turks. Lorraine
returned to Vienna and let himself be shut in,
but Leopold fled and sent a frantic appeal to
Sobieski to come to his aid. All Europe, except
Louis of France, and his vassals, held its breath
with fear. France and her satellites waited in
eager hope that this might be the end of the hated
Hapsburg.

All eyes were turned to the court in Warsaw.
Should Vienna fall, Austria would fall with it.
Every day messengers arrived at the royal resi-
dence, imploring Sobieski to come to the aid of
the stricken empire. It was not so much the aid
of the Polish troops that was demanded; it was
the peerless leadership of the Polish king. So-
bieski would not go without a sufficient army, and
as his unhappy country was, as usual, rent by
factional troubles, his preparations went on very
slowly. Louis's resources in the way of finding
obstacles to his going seemed inexhaustible. It
was believed Sobieski could no longer bear the
hardships of campaigning. For several years the
Polish king had not seen active military service,
and rumour had it that court life and inactivity
had rendered him unfit for real leadership.
" Don't trouble yourself," wrote the French am-
bassador to King Louis, " Sobieski is too fat to
sit on a horse and fight" The Polish king heard
of this message. It settled the matter for him.

146

HOW VIENNA ESCAPED THE TURK

He at once started for Warsaw, and, as he left,
he rode in full armour and equipment under the
window of the French embassy, and shouted as he
rode : " Be kind enough to send another message
to your master in Paris. Tell him that I have
started for Vienna, on horseback, and to fight."

On the way out of the city he received two
messengers from the Emperor, begging him to
hasten, and offering him the command of all the
Christian forces, Germans included. These en-
voys fell on their knees before the Polish king.
" Save Vienna, save Christianity," they cried.
" It is our duty," replied the Polish king.
"Now," shouted Father Wojnowski (who was
with the Polish army), "now I know why this
Polish people was created ! ... It is only when
the pagan sea swells, when that vile dragon opens
its jaws to devour Christianity and mankind,
when the Roman Caesar and all German lands
are shivering in front of this avalanche, that I
learn why God created us and imposed on us this
duty. The Turks themselves know this. Other
men may tremble, but we will not, as we have not
trembled thus far; so let our blood flow to the
very last drop, and let mine be mixed with the
rest of it. Amen."

In mid-August, with about 30,000 men (mostly
cavalry), a large portion raised and paid for by
himself, Sobieski began his long, slow march
through the German cities. There were a few

147

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

representatives of every army in Christendom in
that small force of the Polish king, — men from
every country, except France — and Europe, from
Sweden to Italy, watched and waited and hoped.

It was a hard march over the Danube and
through the mountains. All the German artil-
lery had to be left behind, but the Poles dragged
28 pieces over the summits. Kara Mustapha had
300. Sobieski's famous Polish horse never failed
him. One of the battalions presented a very
ragged appearance, and a German general, whose
gold lace was brighter than his courage, com-
plained to Sobieski that it was a disgrace to the
others. " Wait," said the Polish king, " wait.
That battalion has sworn never to wear any
clothes but what it takes from the enemy. In
the last war the men all looked like Turks. They
will again. Wait."

By the middle of September the Christian
army, now swollen to 70,000 men, Poles and Ger-
mans, reached the top of the ridge and could
Vienna surrounded on all sides by the Mussul-
man camps. It was a magnificent spectacle. As
far as the eye could reach the tabours of the
Mussulmans and Tartars stretched and glistened
in the sunlight " Behold," says Coyer, Sobies-
ki's Boswell, " the immense plain and all the
islands of the Danube covered with pavilions
whose magnificence seemed rather calculated for
an encampment of pleasure than the hardships

148

HOW VIENNA ESCAPED THE TURK

of war — horses, camels, buffaloes, 300,000 men
all in motion, swarms of Tartars dispersed in
their usual confusion ; the fire of the besiegers ter-
rible and incessant; the city only to be seen by
the top of the steeples, and the fire and smoke
that covered it" " This man," said Sobieski
when he saw the Turkish lines, " is badly en-
camped. He knows nothing of war. We shall
certainly beat him."

When Kara Mustapha beheld the Christian
forces descending the mountain he could scarcely
believe his eyes. Even when his enemy's army
had spread out upon the plain, he would not be-
lieve that the terrible Sobieski was leading. So
little did the Moslem general understand what
was coming against him, that he sent out only the
Tartars, some light cavalry and other irregulars,
to meet the Christians. He sat in his tent, sip-
ping his coffee, and consigning all Christians to
the Mussulman inferno.

It was Sunday morning, and the besieged in
Vienna were at church, but they saw their res-
cuers and took heart. Dashing down the moun-
tain, the Polish and German knights met the
Tartars full tilt, the Austrians and Saxons in the
left wing beginning the fight. The centre, which
was composed of Germans alone, and the right of
Poles alone, reached the field at noon, and, in a
few hours, the Moslem defence was broken at all
points. All day long they fought, and then an

149

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

eclipse of the moon completed the panic of the
Turks. " Look at the sky," shouted the Khan
of Tartary to Kara Mustapha. " Don't you see
that God is against us? It is the King of Po-
land."

Sobieski kept in the centre in the thickest of
the fight, and literally hewed his way to where the
Grand Vizier, on horseback, commanded his
corps. "God for Poland," shouted the Chris-
tians. " Not to us, not to us, O Lord, but to Thy
name be the glory," cried Sobieski. When the
Mussulman chieftain realised that the Polish
king himself was before him, his bravery left him,
and he fled. Almost all the pashas followed his
example, and the flight became general. Lor-
raine and his little band of 10,000 hurried out of
the city to meet their deliverers. The town went
wild over Sobieski. The people fell on their faces
before his horse, kissed his dress and his boots,
and even the legs of his horse. The Te Deum
was celebrated in St. Stephen's, and the preacher
chose for his text : " There was a man sent from
God, whose name was John."

They had been in sore straits, this little band,
and the good citizens from hunger and the ter-
rible plague. H The grave continued open with-
out ever closing its mouth, and in three days
more we must have submitted," wept Lorraine
to his rescuer. One brave Pole named Kulczycki,
who worked all through the mining and counter-

150

HOW VIENNA ESCAPED THE TURK

mining, sallied out, made his way out through
the Moslem ranks and carried the news to So-
bieski. For this he received permission to set up
the first coffee-house in Vienna. This is how
Vienna rolls came to be crescent-shaped — as they
are to this day. And if you want to hear the story
for yourself, go into the coffee-house, kept by
the lineal successor of Kulczycki, on the Graben,
in Vienna.

The Vizier, the Moslem general, and six of his
pashas died. The Sultan ordered Kara Mustapha
to be bowstrung. Then the Polish cavalry took
his head to Vienna on the end of a lance. They
show this skull in the Arsenal Museum to-day.
It is that of a brutal, blood-thirsty man.

The best account of the campaign and battle
can be gleaned from the letters that the warrior-
king wrote home to his wife, under whose thumb
he lived even when out of her sight. At the close
of the fighting he took one of the Vizier's finely
enamelled stirrups and gave it to an aide. " Take
it to the Queen," he commanded, " and tell her
that he to whom it belonged is defeated and
slain."

Looking over a collection of ancient parch-
ments and " letters patent," in possession of
Count Ledochowski in Warsaw, I noted that So-
bieski and Jan Kazimierz were the only two Po-
lish kings who signed official documents " Kr6l
Polski " (King of Poland) instead of " Rex Polo-

151

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

niae," as did all the others. Sobieski was the
last absolutely independent king of Poland. As
a general he was one of the greatest characters
in her annals. With all his eminence as a
soldier, however, it was Sobieski, who, beyond
a doubt, began the ruin of Poland. He ceded
Kiev to the father of Peter the Great, 'and in so
doing placed the keys of his house in the hands of
his most determined enemy. He also conceded
to Russia the protection of the Ruthenians, Poles
of the Greek Catholic faith. This brought Mus-
covy across the Dnieper, and, a few years later,
when the Poles drove the Cossacks to seek Rus-
sian protection, they sealed their fate as a nation.

152

VIII
THE EEAL "THADDEUS OF WARSAW"

EVEN in the annals of the romantic, chival-
rous, patriotic Polish people, always so
given to idealistic conceptions, there are
but very few names (if there are any) about
which cluster so much romance, chivalry, and
patriotism as will keep ever green the memory
of the soldier-statesman who led Poland's
armies against her enemies of the third par-
tition. For Tadeusz Kosciuszko the world held
but one country — Poland. For her he bled and
sacrificed and suffered, and even when fate
seemed most against her he worked on and
hoped on, refusing to believe that his beloved
country could ever perish.

The famous Perroneta, who taught him engi-
neering in Paris, said of him " He is a fine fellow,
modest, manly, a noble character, and a splendid
soldier. He has all the liberal ideas of the day,
and yet he will not talk of anything but Poland
and her restoration. For him, there seems to be
no other country in the world."

There is a whole character sketch in these
words. One of the greatest soldiers of his time,

153

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

one of the noblest spirits of all times, a leader in
the great revolutionary period from 1790 to 1810,
in three prominent nations, Poland, France, and
the United States, an " inseparable part of two
worlds and all classes " — it is yet as the unselfish
lover of his country and a knight in her defence
that Kosciuszko will be known to history.

Kosciuszko had something greater and finer
in his soul than any of his compatriots. He re-
lied entirely on the resources of Poland. He
saw that Polish liberty could come only through
Polish effort, and he never looked to aliens for
help. Especially did he trust the peasants. When,
during the Cracow insurrection of 1794, the
faint-hearted ones asked, " Who are at our backs?
To whom shall we look for help? " Kosciuszko
replied, " Here are the backs (striking his own).
Trust the Polish people. Let us recognise, in
the millions of peasants, our brothers, and we
shall then easily be able to throw off the yoke of
oppression, and to re-establish solidarity and
equality before God and the laws of our country. "

It has been asserted that Kosciuszko was of
noble blood. This is not true, at least not with-
out a qualifying statement. His was a very old
family of Lithuania, which was noble in the time
of Prince Witold's wars against the Teutonic
Knights. But war, poverty, and family misfor-
tunes had brought about reverses which had ob-
scured the title.

154

THE REAL " THADDEUS OF WARSAW"

Ludwik Kosciuszko, the father of Tadeusz, was
one of the landed proprietors of Lithuania, known
among the Poles as szlachta. He was a man of
unusual ability, and his public-spirited life in
these troubled times won for him the title which
his forebears had lost or forfeited. The elder
Kosciuszko, however, had a violent temper and
was very cruel to his peasant retainers. The son,
early in his life, learned the terrible consequences
of injustice. It is generally believed that Lud-
wik Kosciuszko was killed by his serfs for some
outrage on them. He did not realise that in that
fact of injustice and cruelty to the Polish peas-
ant lay one great cause of Poland's downfall.
But the son never forgot the lesson.

Tekla Ratomska, the mother, was one of those
strong yet beautifully womanly characters so
often found among Polish women. It was to her,
he always asserted, that Tadeusz owed his lofty
views and steadfastness of purpose. Young Kos-
ciuszko was a patriot from his cradle. He was
not an only child. There was another boy,
Joseph, whose character was not exemplary, and
two girls, Anna, the confidant as well as sister
of Tadeusz, and Katarzyna, both of whom mar-
ried soldiers with titles.

The early boyhood of Tadeusz was spent on
the paternal estate. The outdoor life and train-
ing in horsemanship, which was the birthright of
every Polish youth, fitted him for a course at the

155

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

military school in Warsaw, from which he grad-
uated with higli honours. He is said to have been
the most talented student who ever attended its
courses. The Polish king was so impressed with
his ability indeed that he is generally believed to
have given the young captain a stipend with
which to continue his studies abroad. He was
also befriended by an official in the War Depart-
ment, one Joseph Sosnowski. It is well to re-
member this name, since it played a prominent
part in the developments which turned the steps
of the young Kosciuszko to the United States of
America.

The class of 1766 at the Warsaw School of
Knights, in which young Kosciuszko was grad-
uated, was a bright but unruly one. Tadeusz
was the leader in both respects. This thickset
lad, with a rough, ugly face, but a distinguished
military air, had inherited his father's stubborn-
ness and fiery disposition as well as his high
abilities. Kosciuszko was a hard student at this
school. One of his fellow-students used to tell
of his waking himself at three in the morning that
he might have more time for study. He accom-
plished this by the then original method of tying
a string to his left hand in such a way that the
servant, going through the hall early, in order
to light the fires, could pull it. On the other
hand, to keep awake late into the night he used
to sit with his feet in cold water.

156

TADEUSZ KOSCIUSZKO— THE "REAL THADDEUS OP
WARSAW."

(From a pastel from life in 1790.
Ossolinski Museum in Lemberg.)

The original is now in the

THE REAL " THADDEUS OF WARSAW"

Five years spent in travelling in western
Europe, particularly in France, which was then
looked upon as the world's mentor in the art of
war, fitted Kosciuszko to begin the strenuous ca-
reer that was in store for him. Full of honours
and the learning of the schools, the young soldier
found his country in need of stern, practical, ex-
perienced administrators and fighters.

It was one of the darkest hours of Polish his-
tory. One partition had been consummated, and
the unfortunate people, shorn of the greater part
of their national strength, governed by a weak
king and tyrannised over by a corrupt, effeminate
aristocracy, lay almost helpless, waiting for the
final descent of the vultures. Poland needed all
her sons to defend her, and a soldier with the
training and equipment which the great French
schools had given Kosciuszko was a godsend to
the distracted Commonwealth. He at once vol-
unteered for service, and was made a captain of
artillery.

At this point in his career the woman enters.
In order to increase his modest stipend as cap-
tain of the army, young Kosciuszko improved his
spare moments by giving history and drawing
lessons to Panna Ludwika Sosnowska, the
daughter of his old benefactor, who had now
become wojewoda, or judge of the community.
Panna Sosnowska was beautiful and clever, and,
of course, the inevitable happened. In a very

157

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

short time the impetuous young artillery captain
fell desperately in love with his fair pupil. The
lady returned his affection. But the wooing was
carried on under great difficulties. All this, it
must not be forgotten, was in Poland, in the 18th
century, when social conventions were very rigor-
ous. Whenever the tutor came there was a chap-
eron present who remained all through the lesson.
This lady, Panna Karolina Zenowicz, was a rela-
tive, and not a dragon. But poor Kosciuszko
had to address to Karolina all the pretty speeches
he meant for Ludwika. It was embarrassing,
to say the very least. But more trouble was in
store for him. The young cavalier was poor. No
mere captain of artillery, whatever his ability or
prospects, could hope to win the hand of the
daughter of so exalted a dignitary as a wojewoda.
Kosciuszko, however, had unlimited enterprise
and energy. It was a matter largely of official-
dom and money, not of character or heart. Why
not go to the head of all things? Tadeusz
marched straight to the King and told him
frankly just how matters stood. He besought
the monarch to intercede for him with the
haughty parent of his lady-love. Amazed at the
young man's impetuosity and audacity, the King
tried to dissuade him from the whole project.
But, after all, this last of the Polish kings, Stan-
islaw Poniatowski, was as easy-going and good-
natured as he was weak and vacillating. He

158

THE REAL " THADDEUS OF WARSAW"

consented to help Kosciuszko. Then, quite char-
acteristically, he suddenly changed his mind and
sent a warning to the wojewoda of what was
likely to happen. The irate father was furious.
Soon afterward, when the tutor and suitor ar-
rived at the estate he found no one at home.
Parents and daughter had fled.

Ludwika, however, was faithful to him.
Though she afterward married Prince Lubo-
mirski, to save the falling fortunes of her father,
she never forgot her real love. When he returned
from the United States she interceded with the
King to give him a position in the army. She
even wrote to her former lover, giving him some
good advice. But they never met again.

It is to this first disappointment in love that
America owes Kosciuszko's first visit to her
shores. In despair, he determined to leave his
country and seek military glory in France.
When he arrived in Paris he heard of the patri-
otism and sufferings of the American colonies of
Great Britain, in their struggle for independ-
ence, and his soul was aroused. Benjamin
Franklin, then United States Envoy to France,
talked with the fiery young idealist, and declared
him to have been one of the noblest, most unself-
ish spirits he ever knew. Franklin gave Kosci-
uszko letters of introduction and recommenda-
tion to Washington, and in the summer of 1776
the young Pole reached the American camp.

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POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

" What do you wish to do? " asked Washington.
" I come to fight as a volunteer for American in-
dependence." " What can you do? " " Try me."

For eight years Kosciuszko's name was a part
of our strenuous history. He was one of the
noblest of the little band of European idealists
who, when liberty was defeated in their own
lands, transferred their zeal to our patriot cause,
and, sword in hand, fought for our independence.
France sent us Lafayette and Rochambeau ; Ger-
many, DeKalb and Steuben ; Poland, Kosciuszko
and Pulaski. Kosciuszko taught our army the
science of fort construction. He began his serv-
ice in the American army as a colonel of engi-
neers and a member of Washington's staff, but
he soon became the scientist of the army. It was
he who planned Gates' fortified camp at Bemis
Heights, and he was the principal engineer in
the work at West Point All through Greene's
southern campaign, he was the inspiration and
executive of the scientific warfare. Congress
gave him a vote of thanks, brevetted him a briga-
dier-general, and made him a member of the
Order of the Cincinnati. And yet, up to very re-
cent years, when the Poles erected the statue in
Chicago, there was no monument in this country,
worth the name, to the gallant Kosciuszko, un-
less West Point itself be considered such a
monument.

When the Polish patriot came to America
160

THE REAL " THADDEUS OF WARSAW"

a second time, after his Russian captivity, his
welcome was as enthusiastic as could be wished,
and all sorts of social demonstrations were made.
" I consider America my second fatherland," he
said, "and am exceedingly glad to be back
again." Congress caught the popular enthusi-
asm. Kosciuszko was voted a grant of land and
a pension.

It is not generally known how much the Polish
leader did for the United States, in other than
a military capacity. But his affection for Amer-
ica and his readiness to serve her in any and
every possible way deserve a dozen monuments.
When he reached Philadelphia, in 1797, there was
no more fighting to be done, but much diplomacy
was needed in our relations with Europe. Ultra-
republican France soon became irritated at our
" Alien and Sedition " laws, which were aimed,
chiefly, it was thought, against the Irish, then
the special proteges of France. There was also a
powerful though not generally recognised senti-
ment in this country in favour of establishing a
monarchy. France was much incensed over this
suspected lapse in the young republic which she
had just helped to its feet. Kosciuszko was in
full sympathy with the republicans of both coun-
tries, was popular with both peoples, and he suc-
ceeded in allaying, in large measure, the irrita-
tion of France. His services to this country did
not end here, however. France was then the first

161

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

military power in the world, and it was in her
artillery that she excelled. The American En-
voy to Paris requested General Kosciuszko, who
was master of the French system, to write a trea-
tise on the manoeuvres of " Horse Artillery," for
use in the armies of the United States. Kosci-
uszko's book, written in response to this request,
was a manual in great favour in this country for
many years, and at one time a text-book at West
Point.

A more intense, unselfish lover of liberty than
Kosciuszko, perhaps, never existed, and nothing
shows this more clearly than his last Will and
Testament, which was made in this country and
left with our own Thomas Jefferson. It runs :

" I, Tadeusz Kosciuszko, being just in my de-
parture from America, do hereby declare and
direct that, should I make no other testamentary
disposition of my property in the United States,
hereby authorise my friend, Thomas Jefferson,
to employ the whole thereof in purchasing ne-
groes from among his own, or those of any other
gentleman, and giving them liberty in my name,
in giving them an education in trades or other-
wise, and in having them instructed for their
new condition in the duties of morality which
may make them good neighbours, good fathers or
mothers, good husbands or wives, and in their
duties as citizens, teaching them to be defenders
of their liberty and country, and of the good

162

THE REAL " THADDEUS OF WARSAW"

order of society, and in whatsoever may make
them happy and useful, and I make the said
Thomas Jefferson my executor of this. T. Kos-
ciuszko, 5th day of May, 1798."

A strong friendship grew up between Kosci-
uszko and Jefferson. The Pole was clever with
his pencil, and always declared that one of the
best things he ever did was a pastel of his Ameri-
can friend. After the death of the Polish pa-
triot, the aged Jefferson, then in his 75th year,
stood before the court of Albemarle County, Vir-
ginia, and declared that, owing to the infirmity
of age, he could not carry out the provisions of
the testament, but desired that all Kosciuszko
had wished be done. Seven years later a school
for negroes, known as the Kosciuszko School, was
founded in Newark, New Jersey. Kosciuszko
left $13,000 for its benefit.

Kosciuszko's services to his country were pri-
marily those of the soldier, but the soldier com-
pletely dominated by the patriot. After our Rev-
olutionary War he returned to his native land
and his property at Siechnowice. The liberal
ideas of the times had fired his noble nature.
The dazzling ascendency of France, her cham-
pionship of republican principles, the successful
revolution in the former American colonies of
Great Britain, the social and political ferment
over all Europe that marked the close of the
18th century and the opening of the 19th with

163

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

so many triumphs of democracy and liberty —
all appealed powerfully to the young idealist re-
publican. He began at once to put his liberal
ideas into practice. By one act, he freed all the
peasants on his estate from serfdom. He then
went quietly to work to organise his own prov-
ince for defence against Poland's outside ene-
mies. Despite its warlike record, he saw that
the order of knights was not sufficient for na-
tional defence. The position of the Polish peas-
antry was then, in general, but little higher than
that of serfdom. Kosciuszko, however, saw that
it was necessary to make the whole nation homo-
geneous. Each and every class must have its
share, its privileges as well as its responsibili-
ties. The peasants must be called upon to de-
fend the fatherland.

This was a revolutionary idea. But the coun-
sels of Kosciuszko prevailed. At the sejm (par-
liament) called at Warsaw in 1788 the entire
plan of national defence was " overhauled."
Kosciuszko, whose name was as yet compara-
tively unknown in Poland, but whose deeds in
America had begun to make him famous, was
suggested as general. The next year the reor-
ganisation of the army was complete, and Kos-
ciuszko was made major-general.

The air of Europe was full of liberalism, and
Poland was among the first of the nations to
transmute this into formulated safeguards for

164

THE REAL " THADDEUS OF WARSAW"

popular liberties. The new Polish constitution
of the 3d of May (1791), liberal like the French
constitution of the same year, was full of
lofty idealism. Its chief purpose was to do
away with much of the political and social in-
equality of the day in Poland. Indeed, it bore
heavily on the privileges of the aristocracy. It
was the child of four years' travail of the Diet,
and was received with great enthusiasm by the
people. Austria, Russia, and Prussia, however,
objected to these proposed social and political
changes, marched immense armies into Poland,
and the second partition followed.

Most of the Polish officers fled abroad. They
were marked men. Kosciuszko resigned and
went to Warsaw. He was a dangerous man, and
Russia at once cast him out. These were bitter
moments for the patriot, but he refused to de-
spair.

He was known all over Russia as the most
patriotic of the Polish leaders, and absolutely
incorruptible. On his way to Russia an inci-
dent occurred which shows the power of his
name. Hearing that he was about to cross the
frontier, the colonel in command on the border
directed the whole regiment to be ready for emer-
gencies. The sentry was strictly enjoined not to
let Kosciuszko pass. It was a dark, stormy
night, and the sentry was nervous. Hearing a
slight noise, he challenged and fired into the

165

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

darkness. A cat from a neighbouring farmhouse
scampered off in a fright. Thereupon the whole
regiment rushed to the spot to listen, open-
mouthed, to the story of the shivering sentry.
The terrible Kosciuszko had appeared, he said,
he (the sentry) had fired, but a witch had at
once changed the Polish leader into a cat. This
story was widely repeated, and generally be-
lieved. Had not others of the regiment also seen
the cat scampering off?

The dramatic event of the patriot leader's life
was the " insurrection of Kosciuszko," and its
one decisive and fruitless victory of Raclawice.
France had proved a broken reed, England re-
fused to hear, and all the continent seemed
against unhappy Poland. It must be the Poles
themselves who would win liberty for Poland.
So Kosciuszko ventured alone.

It was a memorable journey, memorable in the
annals of patriotism, of war, of suffering, of in-
domitable heroism, that slow progress from Dres-
den to the frontiers of Poland. The gendarmes
of Austria, Russia, and Prussia heard he was
coming, and redoubled their vigilance. His coun-
trymen must have time to prepare for him. Kos-
ciuszko accordingly turned his course southward
to Florence, and so put the police off his track.
But he soon returned to Dresden, and, on Febru-
ary 12, 1794 (his 48th birthday), the two famous
emissaries, Karol Prozor and Francis Xavier.

166

THE REAL " THADDEUS OF WARSAW"

Dmochowski, arrived from Cracow and an-
nounced that the time was ripe for action.

In the beginning of March these three heroic
men reached the Polish frontier, and waited for
the opportune moment to begin " Poland's last
stand." The Diet was still intriguing, and the
soldiers of General Madalinski in Cracow were
in revolt against the order to lay down their
arms. On March 23, 1794, while the Russians
left the city to look for Madalinski, who had fled,
Kosciuszko quietly entered. He was armed
with dictatorial power. The president of the
city, who supported the Russian faction, at first,
opposed him, but, with the help of General Wod-
zicki, a noble, unselfish patriot, he at last suc-
ceeded in bending the officials to his will. The
day after his arrival Wodzicki ordered his regi-
ment out on the rynek, the quaint old market
place of the city, to await the commander, who
was received with shouts of acclamation when
he appeared from Wodzicki's palace.

It was a beautiful morning, with a touch of
spring in the air, when the general stepped into
view of his enthusiastic troops, ill-equipped and
unwarlike in appearance, but full of determina-
tion and fire. The old square was packed with
spectators. It was the " forlorn hope " of the
nation. The ancient Sukiennice, or Cloth Hall,
time-worn and grey, and the hoary palaces flank-
ing it, were fit framing to the picture. When the

167

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

army had sworn allegiance, Kosciuszko, clad in
the peasant's dress which he afterward wore to
show his contempt for caste and his gratitude to
the peasants for their aid in the national defence,
stepped forward and cried in a loud voice:

" I, Tadeusz Kosciuszko, do swear before the
face of God, to the entire Polish nation, that I
will never use the power entrusted to me for pri-
vate oppression, but only for the defence of the
whole nation, and to establish universal liberty,
will I use it. So help me, God, and His Innocent
Passion."

A flat stone, with an appropriate inscription,
now marks the spot on which he stood, and the
cabmen of Cracow, to-day, point it out with rev-
erential awe.

After the oath, the proclamation of the new
insurrection was read, and the soldiers marched
to the Church of Panna Marya to celebrate mass.
This done, the officers, led by Kosciuszko, went
to the City Hall, a quaint, square building on the
market place (now used as an Austrian bar-
racks), from the towers of which Kosciuszko
called to the people of every class — nobles,
tradesmen, peasants, priests, and Jews — to rise
in defence of the country. The peasants, who
formed almost one-half of the entire nriny, were
serving for the first time as volunteers. The new
leader ordered them to be equipped with pikt s
and scythes. They knew nothing of warfare, but

168

THE REAL " THADDEUS OF WARSAW"

they understood the scythe, and these Kosyniery
(scythe-bearers) made a terrible arm of war.

The next day, before the force had started to
meet the Russian enemy, a little incident oc-
curred which showed Kosciuszko's love for the
masses, and illustrated, also, their own unselfish
patriotism. Three coal-heavers, who owned a
number of vessels transporting coal down the
Vistula, elbowed their way through the crowd
and presented themselves in the ante-room of the
palace to offer these barges to the general. Kos-
ciuszko went out personally to receive them.
" Come nearer," he said, calling them by name
(he seemed to know personally every man in his
army). "Come nearer. I want to thank you.
I am only sorry that at present I cannot accept
your offer. But if the war succeeds, then the
country will accept it."

" At least, Pan Commander, you must accept
the money intended to keep the men on these
barges." So saying, the leader unbuckled his
leather belt and shook out thirty ducats into his
sheepskin cap. The two others followed suit, and
offered the entire amount to Kosciuszko, saying,
with a smile, "We beg you to take these but
poorly-stuffed sheep."

Kosciuszko took the caps and handed them to
one of his aides. " I must have my hands free
that I may press you to my heart," he cried. It
was not by any means the first offering of these

169

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

three. They prostrated themselves and kissed
his hands. Kosciuszko cried aloud, but in a voice
choked with feeling, " Long live such citizens."

On the first day of April, 1794, he left Cracow,
leading an army of 4,000 men, about half of which
were regular troops, and the rest unorganised
peasants. As a lion seeking his prey, the Polish
general directed his course straight for the Rus-
sian army, which occupied a strong position near
the village of Raclawice. The Russian general,
Tormasow, had heavily fortified his mountain po-
sition at Kosciejow, and posted his 5,000 vet-
eran regulars. Under the protection of his guns
he waited the arrival of heavy reinforcements
which he expected by sunset. On April 4 the
famous battle of Raclawice, Kosciuszko's one
brilliant victory, was fought. Though not a de-
cisive battle in its results, it was a brilliant
stroke, which furnishes a conclusive proof of the
Polish general's ability as a strategist

TormasoV was not anxious to begin the fight-
ing. He preferred to wait till his reinforcements
came up. But the Polish commander success-
fully tempted attack at about three in the after-
noon. A sunken road, in a deep ravine connect-
ing two small villages about a mile apart, wms
the axis upon which the Polish army turned.
The Poles were drawn up on the plain in three
divisions, and so disposed that, while two heavy
batteries would completely sweep the level

170

THE REAL " THADDEUS OF WARSAW"

ground over which the Russians must advance to
the attack, a flanking column of Poles could pass
beneath the fire without harm, along the depths
of the sunken road. On a little hill, midway be-
tween his two wings, Kosciuszko stationed a
picked force of regulars, and, to support them,
behind a hill he arrayed the so-called " Craco-
vian Militia," or Kosyniery — peasants with their
terrible scythes. Kosciuszko took personal com-
mand of this corps.

A quarter of the Russian army was soon in
motion. Over the gently rising ground it came
and fell upon the Polish left wing. But the Poles
were ready for it, and the charge weakened. It
swung over to the centre. Kosciuszko's eyes
flashed with victory in sight. All his ten guns
opened on the demoralised Russians. Just at
that moment a second Russian column, artillery
and cavalry, debouched into the plain, and, at
almost the same instant, a third column was seen
advancing. An aide sped furiously to warn
Madalinski, who commanded the right, that the
third detachment was meant for him. Then the
Polish leader turned his attention to the first
column of Russians, which had partly extricated
itself from the ravine, and was deploying in line
of battle on the plain.

"Charge bayonets!" shouted Kosciuszko.
" Captain Nidecki, at the head of two companies,
will support the scythe-bearers while they take

171

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

the Russian batteries." Turning to the Kosy-
niery, and pointing to the Russian cannon, he
shouted, " My brave boys, get me those guns !
God and our country ! Forward, my boys ! "

There was a shout that shook the plain : " Vic-
tory or death ! " Two thousand scythes beat the
air. Two thousand peasants, frantic with patri-
otic enthusiasm and love for their chief, swept
along the sunken road like a mountain freshet
in the spring. The white cloaks gleamed in the
sun, and the scythes flashed terribly. A sullen
roar arose from the thin column, as, in two divi-
sions, its beloved leader at its head, it raged
through the ravine. Spreading out into line upon
the plain, the Kosyniery fell upon the Russians
with such rapidity and fury that, although the
charge covered more than a mile, the astonished
gunners had only time to fire twice before the
terrible reapers were at the mouths of the cannon.
Bartos Glowacki, a peasant innkeeper, was the
first to reach the Russian batteries. With a fierce
shout, he jumped on one of the caissons and cov-
ered the mouth of the gun with his cap, while
several of his comrades drew it off toward the
Polish lines. This act made Glowacki famous.
He was created a standard-bearer, and he and all
his family were liberated forever from serfdom.

The Russians broke and fled. Meanwhile, the
second division, not knowing the fate of the first,
had engaged the left wing of the Poles, and an

173

THE REAL " THADDEUS OF WARSAW"

obstinate struggle was in progress, when Kosci-
uszko, having collected his forces somewhat, fell
upon the Russians like a whirlwind. They scat-
tered, and the third column lost heart and broke.
The entire Russian army turned and fled.

The Polish victory was complete. The Rus-
sians lost twenty guns. Upon the battlefield,
from his horse, Kosciuszko, still in his peasant
garb, shouted to his army, " Long live the na-
tion ! Long live liberty ! " The troops shouted in
reply, " Long live Kosciuszko ! " He rejoined,
" I am happy that I can sing the praises of your
valour, and I will lead you as long as heaven
permits me to live ! " A few days afterward he
issued a manifesto proclaiming freedom for every
serf who volunteered for the national defence.

The news of the victory of Raclawice electri-
fied Poland. Warsaw arose en masse and drove
out the Russians. The whole country seemed to
revive. The King wrote a personal, flattering
letter to Kosciuszko, promising all sorts of help.
The patriot leader at once instituted a new gov-
ernment, and went in further search of the Rus-
sian army. Then Prussia, trembling for the fate
of her own Polish lands, declared war, and a
great Prussian army marched against Warsaw.
Events moved rapidly. Kosciuszko was defeated
at Szezekocin by a foe greatly outnumbering him.
He retreated and defended Warsaw so valiantly
that, after a few weeks' siege, the Prussians gave

173

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

up and retired. But two immense Russian armies
were advancing against the Polish capital. At
Maciejowice, on the banks of the Vistula, Kos-
ciuszko again suffered defeat, himself falling
wounded. It was at this battle that, according
to the time-honoured lines of the poet Campbell,
" Freedom shrieked when Kosciuszko fell."
Poetry, however, has gone too far in asserting
that the Polish leader, as he fell, cried : " Fin is
Poloniw!" Kosciuszko himself vehemently de-
nied the truth of this. He called it a " blasphemy
against which I protest from the depths of my
soul." »

For two years Kosciuszko languished in a dun-
geon in the Russian capital. His most bitter
moments there were cheered by the presence of
his friend, the famous poet-soldier, Niemcewicz.
When the Emperor Paul came to the throne he

•In a letter written to the French Count Segur years
after Maciejowice (October 31, 1803) the Polish leader said:

" When the Polish nation called upon me for the defence
of the territorial unity, the dignity, the glory, and the free-
dom of the fatherland, it knew well that I was not the last
Pole, and that with my death on the field of battle, or else-
where, Poland cannot and shall not end. All that the Poles
have done since in the glory-covered Polish legions, and
all that they will still do in the future for the reconstitu-
tion of their fatherland, is sufficient proof that if we, the
devoted champions of that country, are mortal, Poland her-
self remains immortal, and that it is not permitted to
anybody to repeat the grossly insulting words: ' Finit
Polonia.'

" What would the French say if. In the disastrous battle
of Rossbach, in 1757, Marshal Charles de Rohan, Prince of

174

THE REAL " THADDEUS OF WARSAW"

not only liberated Kosciuszko, but treated him
very generously, and made him many presents,
including furniture,- paintings, and bric-a-brac,
from the private rooms of his deceased prede-
cessor, Catherine. He and his son, Alexander,
even visited the fallen Polish leader, who was
lodged in one of the palaces in St. Petersburg.
" I have come, my general, to return to you
your liberty," Paul said. " I know how harshly
you have been treated. But, during the last
reign, all honest people — myself especially —
were so dealt with." ( Referring to the fact that
Catherine kept him in durance as being non com-
pos mentis. ) He continued : " They tried to lead
all honest folk by the nose — even me. But they
couldn't do it with me." Here he brushed his
hand downward over his face significantly, and
made a comical grimace. Paul had no nose, or
only an apology for one, so that it would afford
absolutely no hold or handle by which to lead
him. "You are free, but promise me that you
will remain quiet. It is the best thing for you."
To another Polish prisoner then present, Ignacy

Soubise, had exclaimed: 'Finis Gallia'? or if this cruel
utterance had been attributed to him in the descriptions of
his life?

" I would, therefore, feel obliged to you if, in the new
edition of your work, you would not any longer speak of
this 'Finis Polemics'; and I hope that the great influence
of your name will make a commanding impression among
all those who in future would repeat these words and
attribute to me a blasphemy against which I raise a protest
from the very depth of my soul."

175

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

Potocki, the Emperor Paul continued : " I will
say that I was always opposed to the partitions
of Poland; I considered them unjust and
impolitic. But now, to restore Poland, we must
needs have the consent of three powers. Do you
think that Austria would consent, or, much less,
Prussia? Or must I, for Poland, declare war on
these, my neighbours? Russia needs peace.
You must, my dear Kosciuszko, submit to the sad
necessity." " I have never pitied my own fate,"
replied Kosciuszko, " but I shall never cease
pitying the fate of my country." To show his
good will further Tzar Paul, at Kosciuszko's re-
quest, liberated 13,000 Polish prisoners then
languishing in Siberian prisons.

Kosciuszko then determined to make a second
visit to the United States. Before leaving Rus-
sia, however, he went to the Winter Palace, and
thanked the Emperor Paul for his kindness. The
Polish hero was dressed in an American army
uniform on this occasion. Being still so ill and
weak from his wounds that he could scarcely
walk, he was relieved when he came to the great
stairway to find a chair waiting for him. Two
grenadiers bore him to the room in which the
Emperor received him most graciously. The en-
tire imperial family was present. They inquired
after his health, and begged him to write them
from America. The Tzaritsza, Marya Fedorovna,
asked him to send her flower-seeds from the

176

THE REAL " THADDEUS OF WARSAW"

United States, and insisted upon taking from
him, as a souvenir, his famous peasant coat. In
exchange, she presented him with a pocketbook,
embroidered by her own hand, and a collection
of cameo miniatures of the whole royal family.
In this pocketbook he afterwards found a check
on the Bank of England for 3,000 ducats (nearly
$7,000). Paul beamed with delight, and offered
him 100 serfs, as a slight token of esteem. Kos-
ciuszko asked that, instead of this, he might have
money to help his fellow-prisoners. Paul assented
and gave him $30,000. He also gave the Polish
leader a coachful of personal apparel and kitchen
utensils (most of them taken from Catherine's
private apartments), a sable coat, a cap, and a
number of pairs of shoes. " If you want any-
thing," were the parting words, " do not hesitate
to ask as you would from a friend, for I am your
true friend, and desire you to return my feelings."
The money Kosciuszko deposited in a bank and
never drew out for his own interests. Toward
the end of his life he made it over to several needy
Polish soldiers.

The progress of the defeated Polish leader to
the shores of this country was one continuous
ovation. At Stockholm, statesmen, ministers,
ambassadors came from all Europe to pay hom-
age to the patriot hero. In order not to disturb
him in his sick condition, they made the journey
on foot, lest their carriage wheels cause too much

177

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

noise. The English papers announced, " Kosci-
uszko, the hero of liberty, is coming," and when
he reached London, all the British worthies of
the time paid him their respects — Fox, Sheridan,
Grey, and nobles without number. The harbour
was gaily decorated with flowers and bunting
when he sailed, many admirers accompanying
the vessel in small boats for several miles out of
port. The defeated leader of Maciejowice left
Europe as only a conqueror might.

The mean, unscrupulous side of Napoleon's
character has, perhaps, never been displayed so
fully and unmistakably as in his relations with
the Poles, and particularly with Kosciuszko.
Poland never lost faith in the disinterestedness
of Napoleon's use of her sons in his armies. She
believed in him, even after the unsuspicious Kos-
ciuszko had seen through the selfishness and per-
fidy of the French dictator. Negotiation after
negotiation with French secret agents for active
help to the Poles resulted in nothing more than
wholesale enlistment by enthusiastic Poles in
Napoleon's cause, and the use of Polish soil as a
battlefield for French armies, or as so much booty
to be carved up and distributed as rewards to
various kinglets, princelings, and sycophants who
had been loyal to the schemes of Napoleon's am-
bition. The famous Polish legion, that played
such a conspicuous and brilliant part in almost
all the Napoleonic campaigns, under the leader-

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H 5

THE REAL " THADDEUS OF WARSAW"

ship of Dombrowski, who believed that the tri-
umph of Napoleon meant, as a fulfilment of that
leader's promise, the re-establishment of his be-
loved country as an independent nation, was a
mere football in the Bonaparte ambitions. Na-
poleon tried to get Kosciuszko himself to enlist
in the French army, and even called on him
personally, complimenting him as " the hero of
the North." " Tell your comrades in arms," said
the dictator, " that I always have them in mind,
that I count on them, that I appreciate their self-
sacrifice in the cause that we are protecting, and
that I will always be their friend and compan-
ion." But the Polish leader refused to be duped,
and he personally warned his soldiers against
the blandishments of the French emperor.

When the Napoleonic era was near its end
the Polish patriot began to again hope that, with
the readjustment of the map of Europe, some
measure of justice would come to his unfortu-
nate country. He again returned to France.
His arrival in the old world made Vienna, Ber-
lin, and St. Petersburg very uneasy. The Rus-
sian police searched all Lithuania for him, and
an unfortunate peasant, who resembled him
closely, was " investigated " so thoroughly that
he nearly died during the operation.

When the allies entered Paris, Kosciuszko had
a long talk with the Tzar Alexander, who had
promised to restore Poland to its ancient bound-

179

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

aries. But the odds were too great, and even
Alexander's generosity could not cope with them.
After a long illness in Vienna, Kosciuszko, now
a broken old man, retired to a little farm in
Solothurn, Switzerland, where, for two years, he
lived very quietly. He passed away from earth
on October 26, 1817.

The next year his remains were brought to
Cracow and placed in the Wawel, by the side of
those of Sobieski. The whole nation helped build
a monument to him. A great kopiec, or mound,
a favourite style of monument in Poland, was
erected on Bronislaw Hill, just outside the city
limits. One patriotic Pole, it is said, tore down
his house and gave the ground. The centre or
foundation was a small pile of earth from the
field of Raclawice, and then came earth from
other battlefields. All the nation — speaking al-
most literally — noble, merchant, peasant — each
brought a handful of earth and deposited it as a
testimonial of love and respect to the memory of
the beloved chieftain. A spiral pathway leads to
the top, now grass-grown and capped with a
block of Carpathian granite. Rising more than
400 feet above the level of the Vistula, from its
summit it affords a splendid view of the most
Polish of cities, and its peaceful, rural suburbs.
The patriot's heart was presented, a few years
ago, to the Polish National Museum at Rap-
perswyl, in Switzerland.

180

IX

ON THE FIELD OF GLOEY

IN its main traits, — those of devotion to an
ideal, moral and physical heroism, and pas-
sionate patriotism, — Polish character was
developed completely four or five centuries ago.
It is for this reason chiefly that the works of
Sienkiewicz are so interesting and significant.
The men and women he describes are types
which can be seen to-day ; therefore, the histori-
cal novels on Poland, the famous Trilogy, " The
Knights of the Cross," and "On the Field of
Glory," are epitomes of the national character.

What a vast canvas is that covered by the
scenes of the Trilogy ! The heroes of these three
romances have for their " stamping ground " al-
most the entire ancient Commonwealth. Three
places, however, stand out prominently, above
all others, one in each of the three volumes. In
" With Fire and Sword," the siege of Zbaraz, by
Chmielnicki and Tugai Bey and its heroic de-
fence by Prince Jeremi (Jeremiah) Wisnio-
wecki, is the pivot upon which the story turns.
In " The Deluge " there is another heroic defence,
of the Church of Jasna G6*ra, at Czenstochowa,
where Kordecki and Kmicic withstood the Swedes

181

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

under the redoubtable Miller. In the last of the.
Trilogy — " Pan Michael " — the point d'appui of
the story is the siege of Kamieniec (a third gal-
lant defence), where the little Knight Wolody-
jowski lost his life battling against the Turks.
The incidents connected with these places also
may be regarded as illustrating three of the
salient traits of the Polish national character:
at Zbaraz, military valour; at Czenstochowa, re-
ligious devotion ; at Kamieniec, self-sacrifice and
patriotism.

" With Fire and Sword " is the thrilling story
of the wrong and disaffection of Chmielnicki and
his terrible warfare against the Commonwealth
from 1640 to 1650. The great wave of Cossack
and Tartar inundation — one of the many that
devastated Poland during her four centuries as
the bulwark of Europe against Eastern barbar-
ism — gathered and broke on a small fortified town
called Zbaraz, in what is now Austrian Poland.
It was during the reign of King Jan Kaziinierz
II. (1648-68) that Bogdan Chmielnicki, with his
Cossacks and his Tartar allies under Tugai Bey,
came against the little town made so famous by
Sienkiewicz's pen.

Zbaraz is situated at the first point on the
great plains — Podolia — where the land rolls, and
so, very naturally, by its position it became a
rendezvous for the Christian knights and the first
point of attack for the Cossacks.

182

ON THE FIELD OF GLORY

Chmielnicki tried first to reach Zbaraz by way
of the modern city of Tarnopol, from which
Zbaraz is distant about seven miles. The Poles,
however, had strongly fortified the main road of
the town, and he was compelled to turn aside to a
hill opposite the old castle (this castle still
stands) and to cross the marsh which has now
shrunken to a small pond. Then it was a lake,
whose waters came up to the very walls of the
castle. It was in the month of July, 1649, that
his army of 100,000 men — about equal numbers
of Cossacks and Tartars — camped before the
walls, and at about the same time Prince Jeremi
came up with his 3,000 knights. When the Po-
lish leader took command in Zbaraz he had, all
told, a force of 9,000 men, picked warriors, it is
true, the flower of European soldiery, but a mere
handful in the face of the host outside the
fortress.

With the idea of seeing how the country de-
scribed in " With Fire and Sword " looks to-day,
I accepted the invitation of a Polish gentleman,
who owns a large estate within a mile of Zbaraz,
and made his home my headquarters. The estate
is situated in the village of Ochrymowce, a vil-
lage less than half a mile distant from the little
wood in which Podbipienta met his death at the
hands of the Tartars.

The country about Zbaraz is a beautiful rural
one. It is at the break-up of the great fertile

183

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

plains of Podolia, which formed a portion of the
ancient Polish Commonwealth, but are now
partly in Austria, partly (and mostly) in Russia.
The ground is that splendid black loam which
yields such generous harvests. Naturally a mag-
nificent land, it is now fertilised by heaven only
knows how much human blood and bones cast on
it during the centuries of almost ceaseless war-
fare waged on these plains.

A circuitous route leads through Zarudzie,
Wachldwka, and Stryjdwka — villages all referred
to in the Trilogy as having been burned by the
Cossacks, and still plodding along in the same
peasant way under the same names. The first
thing to attract the attention on approaching the
town is a great hill which was thrown up by the
Tartars, from which to bombard the walls. Most
of the elevations in and about Zbaraz to-day, in-
deed, are the remains of military works.

From the ruins of the old wall I set out on
foot to follow the route of Pan Longin, the gal-
lant Lithuanian, on his errand to King Jan Kazi-
mierz. On the grass-grown slope of the old bat-
tlements, a white-gowned, white-haired peasant
was walking toward the town. He saluted:
"Nech bcndzic pocJiiraloni/ Jczus Chri/stns"
(Blessed be the Lord Jesus Christ), he said
reverently. " Na trick i triekSw" (for ages and
ages), I replied, just as Podbipienta did, as mil-
lions of others have done and will continue to

184

ON THE FIELD OF GLORY

do, " for ages and ages," in this venerable pictur-
esque land, among these tradition-loving people.
It took me an hour in the broad sunshine, over
what is now comparatively easy country, to reach
the wood where the Tartars caught the gallant
Podbipienta. He must have wandered for five
or six hours — all night, as Sienkiewicz puts it.
His martyrdom took place early in the morning.
How beautiful the end ! " The angels of heaven
took his soul and laid it like a bright pearl at
the feet of the Queen of Heaven."

Many wayside shrines, in the forms of a figure
of the Virgin, the Christ, or some saint, were
passed on the road, their weather-stained grey
plaster masses looming up oddly from among the
blades of yellow grain, ready for the sickle, the
statues often garnished with wreaths or skulls.
A peasant might be seen now and then bowing
reverently before one of these figures. It is a
serious matter to these devout peasants, this wor-
ship at shrines, but it sometimes presents a
humorous side to the less religiously inclined. I
saw, for example, one plaster figure with a head
much too large for the body, and also set on at
an angle, and afterwards learned that a rich
peasant, desiring to make a thank offering for
some piece of good fortune, had placed this head,
regardless of its fitness, and no doubt blissfully
unconscious of any incongruity.

By a fortunate chance I arrived in Ochrzy-
185

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

mowce on the 12th of July, the night preceding
that night upon which, centuries before, the great
storm of nature and of war occurred. " It
seemed as though the vault of heaven burst, and
was about to fall on the heads of the combatants."
Thus the weather and other conditions were as
favourable as possible to realise what Sienkie-
wicz describes. The night of the 11th had experi-
enced a terrible downpour of rain, flooding the
whole region and bringing vividly before the
imagination the great storm described in the
novel. The narrow village road was rough and
reeking with mud, the identical road through
which the Tartar horsemen had dashed to attack
Zbaraz.

There is a rare artistic quality to the air in
this region, particularly at the beginning of the
long twilight. It softens outlines, tones down
contrasts, yet brings out colour values in a mar-
vellously effective way. A red-gold shimmer
from the setting sun burnished all the landscape.
The wheat fields positively gleamed, and the
cherry-trees fringed the road like a hedge of bead-
ing. Off to the south the little stream widens
into a lake. From its banks behind the trees
came the soft, plaintive strains of a Ruthenian
folksong, as the bare-legged peasant women beat
their linen into cleanliness. One of the peasant
men, a clean-limbed, clear-eyed fellow, came out
of a hut, and modestly, but with quiet dignity,

186

ON THE FIELD OF GLORY

invited us to enter. He brought a great bowl of
cherries, some black bread, and a bottle of miod,
the honey drink the Poles love so well. We ate
and drank, and then, as his fathers and grand-
fathers did, and as he is teaching his children to
do, the entire family approached and respectfully
kissed our hands.

To-day the town of Zbaraz has from five to six
thousand inhabitants, mostly Jews. It contains
one long street, the greater portion of which is
in very bad condition and very dirty, and there
are, by actual measurement, just sixty-two feet
of sidewalk in the town. Zbaraz has begun to
realise the importance it has attained through
Sienkiewicz's novels, and it has now a Sienkie-
wicz Street (the one long, dirty road already re-
ferred to), a Sobieski Street, and also streets
named after Skrzetuski, Wisniowiecki, and Mic-
kiewicz. One of the first objects of interest is the
old church in which the Knights took the oath
of eternal fidelity. Here the body of Podbipienta
lay in state, after the Tartars had brought it to
Zbaraz. Report has it that the hero was buried
in the cemetery of the town, and that the soldiers
raised a great kopiec, or mound, over his body, by
despositing each a handful of earth as a testi-
monial of their affection and sorrow.

As were all churches in those troubled times,
this is surrounded by a half-ruined wall, pierced
by embrasures for cannon and also connected by

187

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

underground passages with several of the bas-
tions on the great wall, so that, in case of need,
the city's defenders might flee for refuge to the
house of God. It is a grey, time-worn struc-
ture, with two Oriental-looking towers. Two
great images of the Christ, erected in the early
years of the past century, stand in the space in
front. The church is now in charge of the P»« r-
nardine monks, who have a school for the boys
of the town. In its crypt are the mummies of
twenty or thirty Cossacks and Tartars. From
the church it is but ten minutes' walk to the old
castle to which the Poles retired after the first
storm, after which began the regular siege. Al-
most entirely dismantled by time, the old ruin
still stands untouched by the desecrating hand of
" improvement," because the present owner of
the land will not permit the hoary relic to be re-
moved.

The Zbaraz of to-day has grown away from the
old town, and is, for the most part, built outside
the old walls, but toward the opposite side from
the old castle. A good piece of the wall still re-
mains, with the slope dry and grass-grown. Sit-
ting on the soft, green slopes, now so peaceful
and quiet, it was difficult to imagine the scene on
that terrible night, when the Tartar regiments
came up and died all through the long hours,
" filling the moat with corpses and making the
wall slippery with their blood." The venerable

188

ON THE FIELD OF GLORY

building still stands guard at the southwest, as
it did when Chmielnicki and his legions came
down like a flood. Twenty times — as Skrzetuski
afterward told the king — did the terrible warrior
lead his fierce soldiery against the ramparts of
Zbaraz, each time to be repulsed with fearful
slaughter. Here it was also that Skrzetuski had
his single combat with Tugai Bey, and from this
spot it was that, when the Tartars began to flee,
" their white turbans making the fields look like
snow," he pursued with his dreaded hussars.

The castle is, or was, a practically square struc-
ture perched on an elevation with a wide moat
about it, and flanked by towers at the corners
of the walls, each, perhaps, fifty feet high. The
building itself was two stories in height, and
constructed of stone and brick, with stucco on
the outside. It is surmounted by a ridge-pole
roof, fashioned of rough, wooden joists bound to-
gether with rope and, covered with cement. The
great keep still yawns to the left of the main hall,
and remains of secret passages may be seen at
every possible point. Surrounding the court
yard, under the walls, and looking out through
cannon holes on the moat, were the officers' quar-
ters. At one corner of the wall, where the turf
slopes rather abruptly down to the moat, there is
a narrow ridge, along which the Turks are said
to have attempted to enter on the night of the
great storm. Here it was that Podbipienta cut

189

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

off the heads of the three Turks at one blow, thus
fulfilling his vow, and winning the right to marry.
"Wings seemed to sprout from his shoulders;
choirs of angels sang in his breast, as if he were
rising up to heaven. He fought as in a dream,
and every blow of his sword was like a prayer of
thanks."

Off to the west, near where the manor-house
stands to-day, are the remains of the bastion or
fort, the point at which Skrzetuski climbed down
on his perilous mission to the king. Podbipienta
had failed, and the gallant Skrzetuski volunteered
to carry the message telling of Zbaraz's dire need.
At the time there was a great pond or staw, which
extended up to the very wall. At the present
time this has shrunk, so that it is but a widening
of the little stream that runs through it, but so
lazily that the pond is mostly stagnant water.
With a good road, a row of huts, and altogether
fully one hundred feet of dry earth between the
foot of the wall and the pond, I found it an ardu-
ous and even perilous undertaking to clamber
down the steep stone wall. The marsh looks in-
hospitable enough to-day, when there are no
corpses floating about in it, — at least, no human
corpses, — and no enemy worse than a mosquito
on watch for the unwary. Skrzetuski's heroism
can only be fully appreciated when one sees the
spot, knows somewhat of the characteristics of
the age, and then reads the novelists vivid de-

190

ON THE FIELD OF GLORY

scription. Sienkiewicz says that the wall was
not completed on the side of the ponds at the time
of the siege, and it was here that Burlai, the old
Cossack commander, almost succeeded in forc-
ing an entrance. The Hungarians were yielding
when the stout German mercenaries came up and
saved the day. In the darkness the besieged be-
gan to throw lighted tar down from the walls,
that the repulse might be complete. One could
almost fancy that he saw Zagloba before him,
trembling as he recognised the terrible Burlai,
the warrior who had just killed his tenth man.
The fright of the old Falstaff— " I shall die, I
and all my fleas with me," — his anger and his
triumph, as, in full view of both armies, he slew
Burlai with one stroke of the sword — all seemed
more vivid as one walked over the spot where it
actually happened.

The day was drawing to a close as I took my
last look from the battlements of Zbaraz — a beau-
tiful, clear July evening. To the west, the coun-
try stretched off to Russia, wave upon wave of
ripened grain, amid which gleamed and nodded in
the breeze hundreds of scarlet poppies, like the
red dragoons of Wolodyjowski, bending for a
charge. Everything was quiet, peaceful, beauti-
ful. And then, as on that other July day, night
fell and vespers began to toll.

191

THE MECCA OF THE POLES

IN a small peasant village just outside of
Warsaw my host accosted two sturdy boys.
" See what fine Polish boys we have here,"
he said. One of them spoke up quickly. " I am
a Pole," he said, "but he," indicating the other
boy, " is a Russian." " So one of you comes from
Russia, eh?" "Oh, no," was the reply. "We
were both born in this village. We both live
here. But I am a Pole, and he is a Russian."
It seems that one was a Roman Catholic and the
other a member of the Orthodox Church. At-
tempted explanations that nationality was one
thing, religion quite another, were of no avail.
" I am a Catholic, and so I am a Pole. But he
is not a Catholic. Of course he is a Russian."

Religion and patriotism are so closely identi-
fied with the Poles that it is difficult to separate
them, and this connection has had its origin in
historic and geographical reasons.

There is something in the constitution, in the
temperament of the Slavonic race — perhaps this
is partly due to its strain of Oriental blood —
which makes it peculiarly susceptible to sensuous

192

THE MECCA OF THE POLES

impressions. The artistic, imaginative tempera-
ment of the race is peculiarly fertile soil for the
growth of a religious fervour and devotion per-
haps unparalleled in the history of human fami-
lies. The Slav, like the Celt, is a poet and musi-
cian by nature, and he sees poetry and music in
stones, trees, and rocks where the more " practi-
cal " races can discern only material facts and
forces. The Poles are the most finely organised,
most highly developed branch of the Slav race,
and history has written them down as warriors
and religious zealots — often as fanatics. The
Pole never did anything by halves, and he not
only threw all his soul into the service of his
religion, but all his mind and body into the ob-
servance of its forms.

The intense religious fervour of the Pole may
be partly due to his geographical position. Na-
ture so placed him that he was the buffer between
the East and the West. For centuries he stood
the bulwark of Occidental civilisation and the
Christian Church alike against the barbaric Mus-
covite from the frozen North and the turbaned
janissary from the burning plains of the Turkish
Sultan's domain. " We are purely Christ's war-
riors, created in defence of the Cross, and the
faith of the Saviour. Other nations, who till now
have lived without care behind our shoulders,
will see in the clear day of heaven how the task
is accomplished, and w r ith God's will, while the

193

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

earth stands, our service and our glory will not
leave us." The champion, the knight-errant of
Christianity, the Pole, became the most devoted,
zealous cavalier that ever drew blade in de-
fence of his mistress. For her — the Church —
he fought, bled, and died. While other peoples
went after strange gods and sought sordid gain,
he expired amid fields of ice or burned out his
life on the arid plains of the South. His history
is one long crusade in defence of Holy Church.

From such constant, unremitting champion-
ship of Christianity against surrounding non-
Christian nations, he gradually assimilated his
religion to his patriotism. To be a good Pole, he
must be a good Christian. Later, he spun it more
finely. To be a good Pole, he must be a good
Catholic. If a Pole, a Catholic. If a Catholic,
per se, a Pole. Thus nationality and religion be-
came so firmly welded as to be inseparable; in-
deed, scarcely more than different terms for
the same fact. The more the Polish aristocrat
studies the history of his country, the more pa-
triotic he becomes, and the more of a patriot, the
more religious he grows. The Russian goes to
church once and then home. The Pole attends
service in the church, and then, lest he forget,
bows down at every wayside shrine from the
church to his dwelling. It is almost pitiable, this
frantic clinging to old religious forms, many more
than a thousand years old, a sort of desperation,

194

THE MECCA OF THE POLES

as though this might, in some way, save the Pole
from complete Russification.

The religion of the Pole is his life, and it is
one of the glories of the Polish priest that he
is the real friend and helper of his people. He
is identified with every phase of the national life,
even to the festivities of the peasant. These holy
men have been the hope and help of the nation in
war and in peace for centuries.

Religious devotion and fervour are the main
theme of " The Deluge," the second volume of
the Sienkiewicz Trilogy. The story is that of the
invasion of the Commonwealth by the Swedes
under King Charles Gustavus, the apparent sub-
mission of Poland, the flight of King Jan Kazi-
mierz, his return, and the arousing of the Com-
monwealth to expel the invaders.

Through the mazes of Polish and Swedish re-
lations it is unnecessary to go. Suffice it to
say that in the middle of the 17th century a
number of conflicting claims of Swedes to the
crown of Poland, and of Poles to the throne of
Sweden, sprang up. The Swedish King Charles
Gustavus, with 60,000 veteran troops, invaded
Pomerania, then a part of the Polish Common-
wealth. He met with but little opposition, took
Warsaw, and Cracow, and forced the Polish
king to flee. The country was divided and
torn by factional strife, and the Swedes had al-
most a triumphal march till they laid siege to

.195

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

Czenstochowa, to which stronghold they had been
attracted by the great riches of the Church of
Jasna Gtfra. The Poles regarded this as a sacri-
lege and sprang to arms. King Jan Kazimierz
returned to his kingdom by way of Hungary,
forcing his way through the Carpathian Moun-
tains, after a desperate struggle with the Swedes
in one of the most isolated passes. Here it was
that Kniicic performed such prodigies of valour,
and the gdrali, or mountaineers, wrought such
havoc with their ciupagi, and by casting down
rocks on the Swedes. The pivotal event of this
war was the siege of the church stronghold of
Jasna GoYa at Czenstochowa, in 1655, by Gen-
eral Miller and his Swedes, and its defence by
Kordecki and Kmicic.

Czenstochowa is in Russian Poland, in the old
kingdom, and is a station on the railroad half-
way between Cracow and Warsaw, being about
six hours' ride from the latter city. It is now
a town of 70,000 inhabitants, one of those
irregularly constructed but rapidly growing
manufacturing cities that one finds all over
Russia.

The city is spread out and rambling and not
particularly attractive. A long, wide, tree-
arched promenade through the centre affords op-
portunity for a continuous parade of rich and
poor — handsome Russian officers with pretty
women, and droshky men and 'ostler boys with

196

THE MECCA OF THE POLES

factory girls. The common Russian soldier is
rather a jolly fellow. Large, raw, with hair fre-
quently as light in colour as tow and as thick as
a mop, he roams about the streets when off duty,
often in twos, hand in hand, grinning good-
humouredly and promptly taken in by all the
" skin " devices with which the town abounds —
side-shows of " disappearing ladies " and reap-
pearing skeletons ; steam calliopes, " test your
lungs " apparatuses, and all the rest. There are
eight or ten thousand soldiers in Czenstochowa,
and one sees them everywhere. But there is
really nothing in the town itself for the traveller.
The church is the great point of interest.

Jasna G<5ra — " Bright or Exalted Mountain "
— is a church, or rather a group of church build-
ings, situated on an elevation, from which a great
stretch of surrounding country can be seen. The
situation is a fine one for a church, and, by the
earthworks and masonry that still remain, one
can see how strong it must have been when the
Swedes tried to take it. The church has a long
ecclesiastical history. Tradition says that many
miracles have been wrought there, and on several
occasions the Virgin Mother herself has appeared
to worshippers. After successfully resisting the
Swedes, "Saint Mary" was declared Queen of
Poland, as she was believed to have aided in the
defence of Jasna Grfra.

Leaving the busy part of the town, one ap-
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POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

proaches the church by a wide avenue, shaded
with handsome trees and leading through a fine
park. A panorama showing Christ's passion
and death is given periodically at the entrance
to the park. Before reaching the church itself
you come upon a great bronze statue of the Tzar
Alexander II., guarded day and night by a senti-
nel on either side. A little farther on, but less
conspicuously placed, is a statue of the brave
soldier-priest Kordecki, to whose heroism and
valour Jasna Gora chiefly owed its deliverance.
Then one comes in front of the church itself, a
pile of buildings in old, grey, irregular style, sur-
rounded by, or rather perched above, a fifty-foot-
high brick wall, pierced for cannon. It is one of
the best extant specimens of the old fortress-
church — the literal church militant. The old
earthworks still remain, although now grass-
grown and peaceful looking. The walls are being
restored and an outside cordon of masonry is in
process of erection. Surrounding the walls, on
two sides, are rows of little booths — there must
be a hundred of them — where images, rosaries,
praying cards, pictures of saints, and relics are
vended. Here also are all sorts of comestibles
and drinkables — fruits, sandwiches, little cakes,
cold coffee, with slices of lemon — ready for the
refreshment of the pilgrim from afar.

Bands of pilgrims are constantly arriving.
This is certainly one of the great religious centres

198

THE MECCA OF THE POLES

of the world, and the sight (which can be seen
almost every morning in summer) of acres of
peasants lying flat on their faces before the mon-
astery is marvellous. One of these peasant pil-
grim bands passed along the outskirts of Cracow
while I was there. One hot July noon about
one hundred tramped by, singing, bearing ban-
ners and loaded with their packs, journeying to
Czenstochowa, as do the Moslems to Mecca. It
is a solemn duty, this pilgrimage, and there is no
sacrifice too great to be made in its behalf. A
priest in Cracow told me of an old confrere of
his near Warsaw who, when he heard that a
band of pilgrims was coming from Lithuania,
past his little hut, though it was a stormy night
and he ninety years old, went out to meet and
bless the wayfarers. They were in some way de-
layed, and he waited, cold and hungry, for three,
four, six, nine hours, patiently, uncomplainingly.
Then he lay down and died, and they found him
in the road with a peaceful smile on his aged
countenance.

It was on a Sunday morning in August, at
about ten o'clock, that I visited the church of
Jasna Gora. Shouting, singing, and praying
had resounded through the streets since six
o'clock.

I made my way to the main gate, through a
long avenue of beggars, sightless, earless, nose-
less, limbless, in the most revolting states of de-

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POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

formity. Women with no arms or legs begged for
kopecks. An idiot leered at me and muttered an
inarticulate demand. A grizzled old man, with
no legs, squatted in almost the middle of the road,
fingering one of the old lyra, and droning out
in the most lachrymose fashion some ancient,
moth-eaten strain, was very importunate. He
seized me by the coat and whined : " Please, kind
sir, an alms, in the name of the Mother of God
of Czenstochowa, Queen of Heaven."

On the church wall, facing the entrance, is a
large picture of the famous Matka Boska Czen-
stochoska, the Virgin of Czenstochowa. This is
the most famous and most revered of the images
of the Virgin among the Poles. One sees it every-
where, in Galicia and in Russian Poland. It is
the figure of a mild-faced woman and child, of
the Polish type, generally brown in colour and
surrounded by rays, stars, and spangles of gold.
It is believed to have special miraculous power.
The Poles claim that it first appeared in Jerusa-
lem in the early Christian centuries. Thence it
was taken to Constantinople. Thence to Kiev
and finally to Poland. The original image, which
is in the chapel of the old church, was disfigured
by the Tartars, who cut great gashes by shooting
arrows across the cheek of the Virgin. Several
attempts were made to paint out these gashes,
but they always reappeared again, says the tra-
dition. So a miracle was pronounced and the

200

"MATKA BOSKA CZENSTOCHOWSKA."

(The famous image of the Virgin at Jasna Gfira, showing arrow marks
on the cheek. Reproduced from one of the colored image pictures sold be-
fore the church.)

THE MECCA OF THE POLES

scars left untouched. They can be seen to-day.
The picture is set up at frequent intervals on the
church walls, and wherever there is a picture
there you are sure to find a group of kneeling wor-
shippers. This mild-eyed, brown-faced woman,
who has heard the fervent, frantic prayers of
generations, nay, centuries, and has never
changed expression, seems to look down sadly,
one might say pityingly, on it all.

Before this picture in the courtyard every one
kneels and murmurs a prayer. The stones in this
courtyard are, in places, literally worn into ba-
sins by the genuflections of the faithful. This is
the first station; and here, the strange, wonder-
ful, picturesque panorama of Middle-Ages devo-
tion begins. At the entrance to the church itself
sits a priest, gathering money. He asks, begs,
pleads, expostulates, argues, commands, threat-
ens, suggests, hints, intimates, demands, suiting
his method of address to the worldly station and
character of the pilgrim. It is a true democracy
of religion here. The kid-gloved aristocrat (a
few of these come to Czenstochowa) walks by the
side of the brown, dirty, barefooted peasant

The new church is a great building of grey
stone, with a black iron tower that can be seen
for miles around. This tower was destroyed by
fire two or three days after my visit to the church,
but is being rapidly rebuilt and restored to ita
former grandeur. The new church is erected

soil

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

over and around the old edifice, which is in a
fair state of preservation.

Through a massive stone portal one enters a
spacious vestibule, with a groined roof, adorned
with paintings. To the right, on a black marble
cross, is a half life-size brass figure of the Christ.
Dust and cobwebs cling to the cross and to the
head and shoulders of the image, but the brass
toe sparkles and glitters like the sun. Osculation
for generations has proved an admirable polish.
Every one, old and young, pauses to kiss the
foot of the Saviour's image. The first altar is but
a few steps farther on — a figure of the Virgin
and child in silver, surrounded by many candles
and flowers.

A sharp turn to the right, carefully picking
one's way through the prostrate worshippers, who
keep coming till there is literally not a free square
foot on the floor of the room and entering corri-
dor, and the great nave comes into view. It is
a cathedral in size, with splendid groined roof,
frescoed with paintings. As one enters the
church itself and gets beyond the current of fresh
air from the outside, the atmosphere of the in-
terior becomes stifling. Growing more accus-
tomed to it, however, he notices a sea of kneel i Dg
and prostrate forms in various stages of religious
hysteria, depression, and that peculiar exaltation
so common among Slavonic peasants. A wail or
groan from an old woman who lies " in the form

202

THE MECCA OF THE POLES

of a cross " beating her aged head, with its white
locks, against the stone floor, comes from one side.
From the floor arises a triumphant cry, as an
equally aged, venerable man rocks himself to and
fro in an ecstasy, his prayer-book gripped con-
vulsively, his eyes rolling in almost a frenzy.

There is an order of procession — a series of
stations — and every one follows this order as he
enters, so that there is a continuous stream of
worshippers passing through the different halls
and chapels. Mothers, with little brown naked
children, stretch them out pleadingly to the image
on some favourite altar. Old men kneel and
lean their feeble heads on sticks, while they tell
their beads mumblingly, with toothless gums.

One has to be careful in moving among the
recumbent forms. He may tread on some wor-
shipper who has humbled himself so far as to
touch with his lips the stone pavement, dusty
and soiled with the passage of five or six thou-
sand feet. I ail but stepped on the form of a
young peasant girl. By the dim light that filters
through the stained-glass windows I saw a
girl's form, slightly more slender than the usual
peasant build, clad in the most vivid of colouring
— blue bodice, red skirt, flaming yellow and green
headkerchief, dotted with red roses. She was
lying prone on her face, in the form of a cross.
Her breast was heaving, and sobs shook her entire
frame. Again and again the quivering lips

208

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

touched the stones of the floor, and slowly as the
prayers were recited, one by one, a little pool of
tears collected on the marble. She was calling
frantically on the Virgin of Czenstochowa for a
boon.

Through all the susurration of prayer and
groan the great organ pealed out its thunderous,
vibrant tones, and a fine choir chanted the serv-
ice. The music was Eastern, with a strange
blend of harp, blare, and bell effect. Away up
in front beneath the great altar, with its crowns,
golden rays, and mass of ornamentation, a gor-
geously attired priest was saying mass. But no
one — or not one in fifty of the congregation —
heard him. When he reached the point for re-
sponse, those near him began the chant, and then
it vibrated and shuddered in mighty crescendo
and diminuendo through the entire company.

It was too much to grasp at once — too severe
a strain on the body and nerves. So, literally
fighting my way out into the fresh air, I sat down
on one of the old grass-grown mounds, within
hearing of the triumphant organ peals, and looked
off to where the Swedes came up and drew their
cordon of bullet and fire about the devoted
church. To the right the bronze figure of the
priest Kordecki lifts a hand in benison. In
front is a statue of John the Baptist. To the
left is the entrance to the old church — the chapel
of the famous Virgin of Czenstochowa.

204

THE MECCA OF THE POLES

It is a comparatively small room, but on that
day it was crowded so that it was almost impos-
sible for the worshippers to prostrate themselves.
They could barely find space to stand upright.
There was less light than in the main chapel, and
the congregation was quieter, apparently awed by
the proximity of the revered altar. Here and
there a confession box loomed up above the mass
of heads. A peasant whispered his confession.
Then he seized the priest's hands, kissed them
passionately, crossed himself, and made his way,
by slow stages, with infinite toil and patience,
through the densely packed mass, up to the altar,
which is railed off from the main room by heavy
iron bars extending from floor to ceiling.

At the farther end, only dimly seen in the soft,
mellow radiance of hanging silver lamps, is the
famous image itself. The features are scarcely
distinguishable, but the surroundings are so
decked, covered, loaded with gold and silver, that
it tires the eye to look at them, even in the twi-
light of the altar. The image scintillates and
coruscates — diamonds, emeralds, rubies, sap-
phires, garnets, amethysts, topazes, pearls, blink-
ing like eyes as the light from the swinging lamps
spreads in glistening, glistering waves over the
picture. On the walls gold and silver orna-
ments, casts of sacred relics, mirrors, rosaries of
coral and pearl, flash and glitter and gleam. A
massive golden crown above the picture stands

205

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

out prominently, with golden figures, hearts,
swords, and pens flanking it.

Every conceivable device, material, mental,
and moral, to impress and completely subjugate
the simple mind of the peasant, is here employed.
Every sound that can attract the ear, every ma-
terial that draws the eye, is made to lend religious
aid. It is the most powerful religious sense-life
in the world — and lived by a people whose tem-
perament and moral bent respond as the thirsty
soil soaks up the rain. Such complete, absolute
self-abnegation in this age makes one marvel.
The peasant is no longer his own. He belongs,
body, soul, mind, every part of him, to the
Church, to the Virgin. If ever devotion became
concrete, crystallised, appreciable to the senses,
it is here, like an aura, playing over the groan-
ing, agonising, self-immolating throng.

Jasna G6*ra is the Mecca of the Poles, and it is
difficult for a foreigner to appreciate how much
this means to them until he understands how
closely welded and, indeed, identified are pa-
triotism and religion in Poland. " A visit to
Jasna G6*ra means more, much more, to a pa-
triotic Polish Catholic than would a pilgrimage
to St. Peters at Rome, or to our Savour's tomb
at Jerusalem."

206

XI
A VOYAGE OVER THE STEPPES

IN the first decade of the 17th century a Po-
lish gentleman, of noble lineage, living in
Podolia, one Jan Stefanowicz Mazepa, was
serving as a page to the King of Poland. Having
been discovered in a liaison with the wife of an-
other courtier, Pan Mazepa was seized by the
wronged husband and tied to the back of a wild
horse. The animal was then sent, with many
blows, off to its home in the Ukraine. Nearly
dead with hunger, exposure, and suffering,
Mazepa was rescued by some peasants, persuaded
to remain among them, and finally became their
chief. This is the incident which the poet Byron
has so vigorously recounted in his poem.
Mazepa afterward led a revolt against the Tzar
and joined the Swedish King Charles XII. A
few years later, when Peter the Great was flying
from the victorious Charles, he took refuge in
the " Ukraine country of the Cossacks, which is
between Little Tartary, Poland, and Muscovy,
and separated into nearly equal parts by the
Beresthene River." The words are Voltaire's,
and this is the first definite statement on record

207

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

as to the location of the Ukraine. Voltaire goes
on to say that, " in general, the Ukraine is the
most fertile land in the world, and the most de-
serted because of bad government." It was con-
tinually striving for independence, but was
always subject to Poland, or to the Grand Seign-
eur of Moscow. At one time it had the right to
name its own prince, a right afterward revoked
and given to the court at Moscow. Almost a
century of changing fortunes after Peter's vic-
tory over the Swedes brought the Ukraine and
Podolia, in 1795, into final subjection to the Rus-
sian Empire.

It is of this country, this Ukraine, that the last
work of the Sienkiewicz Trilogy treats. " Pan
Michael " is almost exclusively a story of the
steppes. Its theatre of action is the Ukraine
and Podolia, those immense plains of southern
and western Russia that, at the time of which
the novel treats, were a portion of the Polish
Commonwealth, extending southward even to the
Crimea.

When summoned to his forlorn-hope task at
Kamieniec, the little knight, " Pan Michael," was
doing frontier guard duty in the Ukraine, at a
place called Hreptyov, near the country of the
Zaporogian Cossacks. Voltaire tells us that
these Zaporogians were " the most strange people
on earth," a mixture of Russian, Pole, and Tar-
tar — "brigands and filibusters, always drunk."

208

A VOYAGE OVER THE STEPPES

They elected their chiefs, and when unpopular,
choked them to death. " They admitted no
women into their community life, but increased
their numbers by stealing children from sur-
rounding peoples." Their Oriental, southern
origin is emphasised by the fact that (so Sien-
kiewicz tells us) Pan Michael took his herds and
camels with him to Kamieniec. This was the
country where " the little Knight with the
wheaten moustaches " dwelt, and in which the re-
doubtable Basia slew the Tartars in battle.

At the time of which the story " Pan Michael "
deals these plains were the theatre of stirring
events. The Turks had invaded Poland, and So-
bieski was sent to guard the southern and eastern
frontiers. He defeated the invaders at all points
in such short order that the rest of Europe called
his exploit " the miraculous campaign." The
little knight Wolodyjowski fought valiantly at
his side in this campaign. But another Turkish
army — 300,000 splendid troops under the ter-
rible leader, Mohammed IV. — was advancing.
Sobieski had but 6,000 men, and could obtain
no reinforcements. Realising, however, the im-
portance of delaying Mohammed's progress, he
decided to make a stand at Kamieniec, the
chief town of the Podolia. Accordingly he
ordered Michael Wolodyjowski to march from
his outpost position in the Ukraine and defend
Kamieniec.

209

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

The Hetman knew that he was sending the
valiant Pan Michael, " the first soldier of the
Commonwealth," to certain death, but he felt
that the sacrifice was necessary. Kamieniec fell,
despite prodigies of valour by the Poles.

My Polish friends strongly urged me not to
visit Kamieniec. " There is no railroad connec-
tion, and you may find difficulty in crossing the
frontier, as this is a point seldom visited by
travellers." But I persisted, leaving Cracow one
evening at ten o'clock, by what the Austrians call
a Schnellzug (fast train), although it made only
twenty miles an hour. Early next morning I
reached Lemberg, or LwoV, as the Poles speak
of it. Lemberg is a busy, progressive city of
nearly 200,000 inhabitants, the chief city and
capital of Galicia. It still shows traces of
its siege by the Turks. In the old Jesuit
church are preserved cannon balls thrown from
Turkish guns, as well as several from the
later Swedish bombardments. From Lemberg
it is but three hours to Tarnopol, the next point
of historic interest. Between these two cities.
at Podhorce, is a splendid museum, containing
many rare and beautiful relics, particularly of
Sobieski.

Tarnopol has 30,000 inhabitants and is v< «y
old. It has a Place Sobieski, and a statue of
Mickiewicz. Tarnopol has been in the hands of
the Tartars and Cossacks many times. The old

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A VOYAGE OVER THE STEPPES

Ruthenian church, one of its best preserved an-
cient monuments, was three times taken by the
Moslems. Indeed, on its domes the crescents
may still be seen, but surmounted by crosses.
Tartar influence is visible even in the faces of the
peasants, the flat Kalmuck visage being not at all
infrequent.

While tramping the streets that hot July day
my attention was attracted by a wheezy, some-
what dismal sound, which I soon perceived came
from the centre of a small group of peasants.
Closer inspection showed that it was a blind beg-
gar performing on a lyra, the very instrument
with which Zagloba entertained Helena during
their flight from Bohun, as is recounted in " With
Fire and Sword." This lyra is a curious mixture
of strings and rods, turned at one end with a
crank. It is very far from being musical.

The next point of interest after Tarnopol is
TremboVla. This little town has a very old
castle, which, says the legend, was defended
against the Turks by a woman until Sobieski
came and rescued her. From Trembdwla to
Husiatyn, at the terminus of the railroad, and on
the frontier between Austria and Russia, our
progress was provokingly slow. It was all up
grade, and the engine burned only wood. We
reached Austrian Husiatyn at half-past eleven.
From that hour until half-past two I was crossing
the frontier, showing my passport seven times,

211

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

warding off would-be Jew interpreters (Russian
and Polish only being spoken here), and gener-
ally looking after my luggage.

It was a blazing hot day. On the bridge over
the little stream, the middle of which is the divid-
ing line between the domains of Kaiser and Tzar,
stood a long line of vehicles — lumber teams, mar-
ket waggons, nacres. After a half-hour's delay at
the custom-house, during which the inspector
calmly opened and spoiled a box of exposed but
undeveloped photographic negatives, I was per-
mitted to go on my way. Seated in a very dirty,
very rickety waggon, driven by a very unsavoury,
unkempt Hebrew, I started — at three o'clock in
the afternoon — for Kamieniec, twenty-seven Eng-
lish miles' distant.

I shall never forget that ride of eight hours.
Once across the line and into the great
plains region, everything — nature and mankind
— seemed quite different from anything I had
ever seen before. As far as the eye could reach
— and far beyond — the vast prairies stretched,
undulating now and again, in gentle waves, but
immense, treeless, depressing. A feeling of sad-
ness involuntarily creeps over one when he travels
across these plains, especially for the first time.
There is a vast, mysterious, half-hidden sense of
power about the landscape that impresses one
with a sort of elemental fear of nature. This
influence has soaked into and through the Sla-

212

A VOYAGE OVER THE STEPPES

vonic nature and made the Slav a poet, a relig-
ious devotee, a musician.

We drove over tremendously wide roads — three
hundred feet wide in places. Great herds of
beasts — cows, sheep, pigs, goats, chickens, geese,
and ducks — all in one company — passed slowly
by, driven sometimes by a boy with a long whip
or by a stout, bare-legged peasant woman astride
of a lithe little Cossack pony.

The fields on the steppes are cultivated to the
highest possible extent — vegetables and grains of
all kinds, not merely by the acre, but by the hun-
dred, by the thousand acres. The soil is won-
derfully rich and productive. It is claimed by
Eussian statisticians that so rich is this land
that, were there only one successful year in ten
(supposing nine years' crops to have failed to-
tally), the yield of that one year would return a
profit on the entire period. And yet, except in
a very few cases, the peasants do not profit by
this. These sad-eyed, hard-working folk, their
Eastern blood showing in the slightly slanted
eyes and the turban headdress, are only labour-
ers. They own bits of land here and there, it is
true, but by no means so generally as in Galicia.
Their villages also, a number of which we passed
through on the way, are very squalid, in striking
contrast to the huts of the Galician peasants.
Poverty, bitter poverty, shows everywhere in
these villages, especially in those inhabited by

213

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

the Jews. The huts are generally of mud and
thatched with straw, and are destitute of the least
semblance of comfort.

Twilight came on as we still crawled over the
face of the landscape, like a tiny boat on the great
ocean. Many things contributed to strengthen
this impression of a voyage. Now we would pass
a waggonload of tired peasants returning from
their labours, now four or five soldiers coming
back from some manoeuvre, their white uniforms
fairly glistening in the fading light. Now, by
the roadside we would discern the gaping ribs of
a skeleton — of a cow or a horse — with the ghoul-
ish crows sidling in and out of its nude anatomy,
stranded there like a marine derelict. On the
horizon a speck would appear. Over the gentle
rise it would come, a waggon, driven Russian
fashion, the three horses abreast, the little bells
tinkling musically from the high-arched collar.
Its occupant, likely an imposing government
official, would lean forward and bow gravely.
We would salute like ships speaking each other
at sea — two passing specks on the ocean plain.
Then, like ships that pass in the night, a silence,
and that sweeping-apart sensation as when two
swift vessels pass. The red sun dipped below the
horizon and a greyness settled over the landscape.
From its depths, centuries gone seemed to speak.
The shades of Chmielnicki and his Cossacks, of
Tugai Bey and his Tartars, all those wild spirits

214

H d

3 -

fe t

J g

O J75

E S

A VOYAGE OVER THE STEPPES

of bygone ages, seemed to gather again in the
gloaming and again sweep over the plain. The
stars came out and fairly burned in the sky, like
the points of brilliantly burnished lances levelled
at the earth.

Eleven o'clock brought us to the city, a
strangely, weirdly beautiful sight by night.
Through a massive stone gate, five centuries old,
we lumbered up a steep hill, then down an incline
and over a bridge, to the new city. Below us
flowed the Smotrycz, a little stream that empties
into the Dniester, and divides the city into two
parts. From far beneath, at the river's bank, to
the heights above, the town arose, tier upon tier,
its lights gleaming fitfully, the walls like a black
belt at the base.

After some difficulty, owing to the fact that I
spoke no Russian, and no one in Kamieniec
seemed to speak anything else, I secured a room
at a fairly comfortable hotel. Then, having sat-
isfactorily passed the examination usually im-
posed upon guests at hotels in eastern Europe, as
to my purpose in coming to Kamieniec, how long
I intended to stay, the personal habits of all my
ancestors and the rest of the questions, being very
much fatigued, I was about to retire, when the
beautiful moon tempted me to the window.

The view was almost like a scene out of the
Arabian Nights. It was the moon of the Orient
— large, full, of mellow light. A fine white build-

215

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

ing on the opposite height — a seminary for Ortho-
dox priests — loomed up like a mass of silver.
In the street below, lit by the fitful glare of
petroleum lamps, a motley, picturesque throng
passed and repassed, slowly, languidly, revelling
in the slight coolness which the night brought.
Kamieniec is only about fifty miles from the Rou-
manian border, and less than two hundred miles
from the Black Sea. It comes rightfully, there-
fore, by its Oriental characteristics.

Long-cloaked, long-bearded Jews; bare-footed,
bare-headed girls with Egyptian faces, filleted
hair and great pendent earrings of brass; Ru-
thenian peasants; gigantic Kirghiz with Astra-
chan caps ; beautiful Jewesses of the demi-monde,
in costumes a la mode de Paris; Russian soldiers
in the white tunic, black trousers, high boots, and
the cap that is known from Warsaw to Vladivos-
tock; Cossacks on horseback; gorgeously uni-
formed, pompous generals in white, with red and
gold facings to their splendid attire, in ba-
rouches, fiacres, landaus, or the ubiquitous
droschky, driven by barbarous Mongolian-looking
cochers; long-gowned, long-haired Schismat
priests ; gypsies, Turks, and many other perfectly
nondescript types, gathered from the four corners
of the globe, slowly defiled before me. It was
such a sight as stamps itself photographically on
the memory for all time.

The next morning I made a tour of the town.
216

A VOYAGE OVER THE STEPPES

With the aid of an Israelite who spoke a little
German I succeeded in identifying the chief
points of historic and present-day interest. The
old castle which Pan Michael partially blew up
still stands, now doing duty as a Russian bar-
racks. It was built in 1585, by the great Polish
king, Stefan Batory. Here it was that the
Turks, triumphing over all the heroism of the
Polish artillery, entered Kamieniec. Bits of the
old fortifications, particularly towers and wall,
with embrasures for cannon, may be seen scat-
tered about, thickest on the river front. The
convent in which Basia was imprisoned during
the siege still stands on the old square. It has
been somewhat restored, although much dilapi-
dated at the present time. The cathedral of the
Armenians, which Sienkiewicz tells us was on
fire during the siege, is in a fair state of preser-
vation.

The Kamieniec Jew, who is a large element in
the population of the town to-day, is omnipresent.
He sits on the street and smokes his thin little
cigarette, while his half-naked wife and children
sprawl in the roadway. It may be said that, in
general, abject, grinding poverty is his lot. He
sits before his little booth, selling his onions,
stale eggs, potatoes, small bread, peas, parsley,
hard little pears, and other fruits unknown to
the Anglo-Saxon palate. His countenance bears
the stamp of listless despair. What is there to

217

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

live for? Like the worldly Jew in Kingsley's
"Hypatia," he has carefully weighed life in the
balance of pro and con, and is facing the terrible
conviction that it is not worth the living. Yet,
he dare not end it. Despite all his woes, he re-
mains uncompromisingly orthodox. By impe-
rial ukase he is forbidden to wear the corkscrew
side curls that are the darling of his brother in
the Kazimierz of Cracow. But he retains his
long cloak and his long beard, and his children
learn to recite the prayers according to the rit-
ual, rocking to and fro as they drone out the
words with seemingly endless repetition.

Kamieniec-Podolsk (to distinguish it from the
other Kamieniec, which is in Lithuania) has a
population of 40,000, and is a " government "
town. That is, it is the centre of the Russian
" government," or province of Podolia. Modern
material progress is very backward in Kamien-
iec. The rapid but uneven development of the
Empire makes possible the anomaly of a city
of this size with no railroad nearer than
twenty-seven miles, and that in another country.
The first railroad station in Russia is a very
small one, thirty-five miles distant on the line
between Odessa and Kiev. When I visited it
Kamieniec had no street-cars, no electric lights,
and all the transportation is by waggon, a costly
method, resulting in extremely high hotel rates.
The modern city covers a very large territory,

218

A VOYAGE OVER THE STEPPES

and the new part of the town shows some signs
of progress. There has recently been completed
a large, handsome theatre. There is also a fine
park, with a boulevard running through it, and
here every Sunday military music is rendered.
Along the river front there is a pleasant, popu-
lar sylvan promenade.

Kamieniec, being a " government town," is full
of soldiers. At all hours of the day and night
all sorts of representatives of the motley army
of the Tzar may be seen on the streets, from the
common soldier who tramps on foot to the re-
splendent general who rides in his elegant ba-
rouche. It was my fortune to see there 3,000
Cossacks of the Don on horseback. With their
long robes, small swords slung across the breasts,
and their round fur caps pulled down over their
burned visages, these superb riders made a very
picturesque spectacle.

The wall that Pan Michael and his knights
defended against the Turks can still be seen,
although almost entirely dismantled. I ap-
proached the entrance to the tower, now a bar-
racks. No one objecting, much to my surprise,
I entered. So I crossed the courtyard and peered
out of a cannon embrasure, out upon the river
flowing far below. It was at this point that the
Turkish envoys, having seen the white flags which
had been raised over the Ruska gate (the bulk of
this gate remains to-day) by the faint-hearted

219

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

among the besieged, stood and demanded the sur-
render of the garrison.

"And what of Kamieniec?" asked the little
knight.

" It shall go to the Sultan for ages and ages."
Wolodyjowski's reply was to blow up the tower.

" Nic to " — it is nothing — this was the message
he sent to poor Basia, praying in the old convent
in the square. " Nic to." This had been the con-
certed signal to her of his death. She was to say
to herself, " Nic to." (It is nothing.)

The Turks brought the body of the little knight
to Sobieski, and it was buried in the church at
Stanislaw. " Thus died Wolodyjowski, the Hec-
tor of Kamieniec, the first soldier of the Com-
monwealth."

220

XII

WHAT POLAND OWES TO HER WOMEN

IF the Polish eagle has never yet been tamed ;
if it bears its captivity and its wounds, but
refuses to become domesticated, it is because
the Polish women have nursed it and kept before
it the scent of the upper air and the love of
liberty. If no prescription has as yet been dis-
covered for making a Russian or a German out
of a Pole, it is because the Polish women have
kept the fountain head of the national life pure
and incorruptible. If Polish soldiers of all ages
have fought in the ranks of all the armies of the
world against the hosts of tyranny, it has not
been because they were bred soldiers, but because
with their mothers' milk they drank in patriot-
ism; because the Polish mothers sang into their
very lullabies the love of liberty and fatherland,
that will never die out of the Polish heart. No
people can ever be lost when its women place
patriotism above their own comfort and pleas-
ure, above everything else they hold dear. While
there is a single Polish woman living, it is truly
u Jeszcze Polska nie zginela " — " Poland is not
yet lost."

221

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

In all civilised countries it is the women who
give the tone to society. This is especially true
in Poland, where social gatherings are very fre-
quent. From politics the Pole has been largely
debarred. He has, therefore, much more time
and energy for social life. What is more, no
social assembly in Poland, no festivity of any
kind, is complete without the presence of women.
This is, perhaps, one reason for their immense
influence in every phase of Polish life. If the
Polish men are a strong, courteous, patriotic
race, they owe it principally to the inspiration of
their women and constant association with them.
If the Polish language is still a living, growing
force, despite all attempts to crush it out, this is
due, in a large measure, to the patriotism of
Polish mothers, who undo in the home, even be-
fore it is done, all that " Germanisation " and
" Russification " can devise.

Polish women have been called frivolous and
changeable, but they have certainly been con-
stant enough to Poland. Eussia has often tried
to draw them off from their patriotic allegiance
by playing on their well-known love of the dance
and pleasure, but the Polish women have always
placed patriotism above enjoyment. Such small
matters as going into mourning all over the Com-
monwealth when Warsaw was under the reign
of terror, and giving up dancing, of which they
are so passionately fond, are of too frequent oc-

222

WHAT POLAND OWES TO HER WOMEN

currence to mention. And it is not a negative
patriotism, either. Frederick the Great once
said, " In Poland the women attend to politics
while the men get drank." This was an unin-
tentional compliment to the mentality of the
Polish women, for is it not only an inferior
woman who despises politics?

Polish women have always charmed foreigners,
as well as their own countryman. Madame
Harfska captivated Balzac; Marya Leszczynska
won the crown of France because she fascinated
Louis XV., and it was a Polish woman, the he-
roic Madame Walewska, of whom Napoleon is
reported to have said : " She was the only woman
I ever really loved." Even the Teutonic tribute
is not lacking. Bismarck once admitted that he
would rather have two regiments of hussars op-
posed to him than one Polish woman ; the latter
would cause him more trouble by her fascina-
tions.

- It is a fact that the most persistent scof-
fer at the cause of Poland becomes an advo-
cate of Polish independence after he has come
under the charm of the Polish women. Russian
officers stationed in " the Kingdom " are forbid-
den, I have been told, to participate to any great
extent in the social life of Warsaw. The charm
of Polish drawing-rooms and the magnetism of
Poland's daughters might weaken their alle-
giance. Moreover, it is always a Polish family

223

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

that follows upon the marriage of a Russian or a
German with a woman of Poland.

Heroism and self-sacrifice is the verdict of
history on the Polish woman for a thousand
years. The first one of her race to shine out of
the mists of myth and legend is Wanda, daugh-
ter of Krakus, who drowned herself in the Vis-
tula rather than cause her country misery be-
cause of her beauty. A Bohemian princess mar-
ried King Mieczyslaw in order to convert him
and his people to Christianity. Kunegunda, a
Hungarian princess, gave her immense dowry to
her husband, Boleslaw II., to help save the coun-
try from the Tartars.

Queen Jadwiga is one of the saintly characters
of all history. This granddaughter of Kazimierz
the Great was crowned queen at the tender age
of thirteen. She had been engaged in marriage
by her mother to William, Prince of Austria,
whom she loved with all the strength of her
young heart. As queen, however, she was sup-
posed to sacrifice everything to the welfare of
her country, and, at the price of her life's hap-
piness, she married Jagiello, a Lithuanian prince,
to convert him to the Christian faith and to join
Lithuania and Poland. Jagiello was old enough
to be her father. He was illiterate, rough, of
suspicious nature, and he made her life a burden,
constantly accusing her of infidelity. Several
times she was obliged to publicly clear herself

224

WHAT POLAND OWES TO HER WOMEN

of these charges. She was the patroness of learn-
ing and literature, and, with the money obtained
by selling her jewels, she liberally endowed the
Academy of Cracow. The Pope called her the
chosen daughter of the Church, and foreign
princes often came many miles to see one re-
puted so holy.

Then there was Chrzanowska, who defended
Trembdwla against the Turks. With her own
hand she loaded and aimed the cannon and
threatened to kill her husband and herself if he
yielded, until, finally, Sobieski came to her res-
cue. Claudia Potocka and Emilia Szczaniecka,
during the revolution of 1831, gave up their im-
mense fortunes to the Polish cause, nursed the
sick and wounded on field and in hospital, and
sealed their patriotic devotion by exile to Siberia.
Other women, like Emilia Plater and Antonina
Tomaszewska, fought on the field as soldiers, led
regiments, and died in battle for their country.
Indeed, the Polish women, while remaining in-
tensely feminine, have always done their duty
like men, joining conspiracies and following their
husbands into exile without a murmur.

One of the inalienable privileges of the Polish
man is that of losing his head. His enthusiasm
has a way of running away with him. This, of
course, is apt to be dangerous. It is always safe,
however, and may be pardoned when he loses it
to the Polish woman. In that case, the heart

225

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

usually goes with it She will keep the head well
balanced and well braked-in for him.

The masculine Pole believes himself an auto-
crat, and, to all appearances, he is one. But,
like all womanly women, the whole world over,
the Polish woman steers the Polish man. Not as
the American woman steers the American man,
mind you. The masculine Pole is not, by any
means, so meek as his American brother. He
stands on his manly rights and persists in losing
his head frequently, despite all his women folk
can do to prevent it. He is always the real, the
acknowledged head of the family, and nothing
pleases him so much as to see his family, espe-
cially his wife and daughters, happy. He will
spare himself no pains, no toil, no risk, to accom-
plish this; but generally they must be happy in
the way he prescribes — in which he is not, it must
be confessed, as indulgent a husband as the
American man. It is the Slav temperament, in
which is deeply grounded the patriarchal idea ol
masculine authority.

This masculine authority is still a sacred thing
with the Poles, although there are " new women "
among them who are beginning to rebel just a
little. " How is it," I asked a young married
lady of Warsaw, " the Polish women have ex-
erted a splendid and powerful influence on the
history of the nation — perhaps a more powerful
one than the women of any other nation can

226

WHAT POLAND OWES TO HER WOMEN

boast — and yet they certainly do seem to be sub-
missive enough to their lords and masters? How
do you account for it? " She smiled signifi-
cantly. " Oh, our men are, in that respect, like
the whole masculine tribe. We make of them
pretty much what w T e will, only, of course, they
don't always realise it in the process. And then,
you know," she added, " we have more chances
at them, perhaps, than the women of most other
nationalities have at their men. We see them
oftener."

The Polish woman is almost always a good
housekeeper. No, a larger word is needed. She
is a splendid presider over a household. Things
are done in such a large way in Poland. It is a
large-hearted race, and the life on the large es-
tates, which finds ready at hand and in such large
quantities what the French woman, the German
hausfrau, even the American housewife, must
needs go out to purchase in bits, besides the
multitude of widely differing duties, with many
servants to manage — all these have given the
Polish woman a firm grasp on not only the fun-
damentals of household economics, but also on
their minutiae. She has perfected housekeeping
into homekeeping, and made of it an exquisite
art.

Although she loves the social joys, the Polish
woman is a tireless worker — particularly on the
estates. Yet she has almost always mastered

227!

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

the accomplishments, as well as the ordinary
equipment, of life. She generally speaks two or
three languages, and is a good conversationalist.
Did I say mastered? I should have said mis-
tressed. One of the chief charms of the Polish
woman is her intense womanliness. This, no
doubt, is the real secret of her influence over her
mankind. In social gatherings she does not ex-
actly scintillate as the American girl does, but
her presence has a quiet, all-pervading charm
from which none can escape. Always a musical
voice, graceful carriage, magnetic, sympathetic,
womanly intuition, a quick response to ideal-
istic thought, she seems to possess that indefin-
able charm that awakes the chivalry in men
and inspires them to noble, patriotic deeds. But
this is only another way of saying that she has a
very large measure of the eternal feminine, which
forever draws mankind onward.

The Polish woman is, however, still a Euro-
pean. This means that she has not yet quite at-
tained to the stature of social freedom which has
been reached by her American sister. The chap-
eron has not yet become a quantity negligible in
Poland. The chaperon is primarily a European
institution, having its origin in the general as-
sumption that mankind is a sort of ravening
wolf, whose principal object in life is to prey
upon womankind. Of course, if you put it in
this way to a European man, he will shrug his

228

WHAT POLAND OWES TO HER WOMEN

shoulders, and, perhaps, make some reference to
the boldness he has heard is the result of the free-
dom allowed la jeune Americaine. Or, perhaps,
he will admit that it is, after all, merely a matter
of convention and custom. The possibility of a
young man escorting a young woman to a theatre
in the evening without attempting, or at least
contemplating, undue familiarity, is — well, it
does not occur to the European. The close asso-
ciation, frank friendship, and, at the same time,
chivalrous respect of the American man for the
American girl the European cannot understand.
This, however, is European, and not characteris-
tically Polish.

The chaperon is still necessary in Poland, how-
ever, or, at least, the presence of a third party.
I remember that one afternoon a young lady
called at the estate in Galicia where I was a
guest. She had walked quite alone from a neigh-
bouring estate, about two miles away, and noth-
ing was thought of it. The afternoon passed
pleasantly, and darkness came on before we real-
ised it. It so happened that the horses of the
estate were all out, and, as the young lady could
not be driven home, as strict etiquette demanded,
I offered to escort her, as I would have done in
America. After some hesitation on the part of
my hostess and consultation with the young lady
herself, I was permitted to do so. A young peas-
ant lad, however, was sent to chaperon us. He

229

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

could not understand me, nor I him ; in fact, he
would not have presumed to address either of us.
But he was a third party, and that was sufficient.
Custom was satisfied.

A rather amusing illustration of the chaperon
idea and the tenacity with which the Galician
Poles cling to the old social traditions, came to
my notice one day in Cracow. A fine old landed
proprietor had come in from his estate, accom-
panied by his two daughters, unmarried ladies,
each of them having seen more than half a cen-
tury of summers. The maidens desired to leave
their hotel one morning to attend church service.
The church was less than a block off, but, as the
father, for some reason or other, could not ac-
company them, and there was no one else present
who was known to the family, the virgins were
not permitted to attend service. "Why, Be-
buska [Baby]," exclaimed the careful parent to
the one who pouted at such restraint, " surely
you, a maiden lady, would not be seen on the
street without a chaperon! Some rude man
might look at you." This, of course, was an ex-
treme case, but an actual one. The Polish
woman, however, is gradually emancipating her-
self from the chaperon. Many evidences of this
can be seen in Warsaw, where admiration is
openly expressed for the American idea of greater
freedom of association between the sexes.

It would be difficult to exaggerate the beauty
230

WHAT POLAND OWES TO HER WOMEN

of many of the Polish women, from the peasant
to the society lady. Many of the lower class
women are, of course, of the ordinary type, but
some are of a dark, olive complexion, with full,
rich features and abundant hair, and there is
often a fire in the eyes that reminds one of the
Italian face. Much of the great influence ex-
erted by the Polish women is, no doubt, due to
their charm of face and form. Many are slender
and delicate, with pale complexion and bright
dark eyes, but the majority are of the true Slav,
with soft blond hair and eyes of blue. But really
a pencil, not a pen, is required to sketch the type,
which is a refined and intellectual one. Art
lovers will remember the painting of the famous
Countess Potocka, which is such a favourite in
our galleries and parlours.

231

XIII

THE POLISH PEASANT AND THE
FUTUKE OF POLAND

WHEN one of the emperors of the later
" Holy Roman Empire " ascended the
imperial throne, he quickly realised
that the thin, feeble life of his line needed im-
mediate invigoration, or it would be extin-
guished. He then braved the opposition of his
court and married a peasant woman. In her he
saw the strong red blood, the vigour of the rude,
clean stock, near to nature, the infusion of which
into the royal family was its only hope of re-
demption. He had realised one of the great
truths of biology. And what is true of a family
is true of a nation.

Polish leaders are beginning to recognise that
law of social and political, as well as of physical,
evolution which ordains that progress proceeds
from the simple to the complex ; that social and
national regeneration comes upward from the
lower orders, and never downward from the aris-
tocrat to the peasant. It is now believed in Po-
land that the progress of the race and its political
regeneration — if that ever comes — will probably,

232

THE POLISH PEASANT

if not certainly, come from the peasant. The
Polish aristocrat, subtle, refined, and sympa-
thetic as he is, is probably already too effete to
bring about national transformation. He is cer-
tainly not practical enough, and really, if the
truth must be told, he often lacks the patriotism !
The peasant, however, is patriotism personi-
fied. He has responded nobly to every call of
his country in her hour of need. In the insur-
rection of Kosciuszko he cheerfully left his field,
and, armed only with his scythe, he went forth
to battle. He has been as responsive ever since.
He is the most common-sense, practical peasant
in the world. " The common sense of the peas-
ant " has become a national proverb. He is self-
respecting, independent, strong, and usually
moral, temperate, and cheerful. It must be con-
fessed that when he emigrates he loses some of
these good qualities. He is also apt to be unruly,
but unruliness is in the Polish blood. His coun-
try recognises his potential worth, and loses no
opportunity to show that it likes him. When-
ever he appears on a public occasion, as each
year in the procession of Corpus Christi, or at
special events, such as the University celebra-
tions of 1900, in Cracow, he always wins most of
the applause. He is the hope of his race. Polish
aspirations for a redeemed national existence,
it is come to be believed, must proceed from the
marriage, in council and life, of the intellect of

233

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

the nation with the rude but sturdy, healthy
peasant stock.

The Polish peasant is, first of all, a tiller of
the soil. He lives by agriculture, and all his
measures are those of the wheat field. Poland
itself is primarily a land of plains, and its three
grand divisions are essentially agricultural in
their interests.

A Polish peasant village is a sight to make an
artist's heart rejoice with exceeding great joy. A
more picturesque scene than one of these villages
on a Sunday or holiday evening it would be diffi-
cult to find the world over. What is it that gives
the rich artistic quality to the atmosphere in Po-
land, toning down all contrasts, and subduing ex-
tremes, so that colours which would be absolutely
" impossible " in the fierce sunlight of America
seem perfectly natural in Galicia and Warsaw —
even necessary to fully round out the landscape?
The only neutral tints are those of the thatched
huts. The garments of the men and women, par-
ticularly those of the women, fairly blossom with
vivid colour. The peasant hut is, in itself and
alone, very picturesque. Put twenty or thirty
of these in close proximity, separated only by
the little kitchen or flower-garden, add a few trees
and a group or two of peasants in their many-
coloured raiment, and you forget all about the
mud in the road, the grunting of the pigs, and
the strongly unpleasant odour that assails your

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nostrils. The houses themselves are of stone or
boards plastered over with mud, which after-
ward receives a coat of whitewash, sometimes
taking on a bluish tinge. The slant roof is
thatched and mud-covered, and over the mud is
laid straw, upon which often grows moss, so that
a peasant's hut, crowned with green-growing
moss, is a frequent picturesque addition to the
landscape. In Russia the peasants' houses have
scarcely any decoration. In Galicia there is an
attempt at art. The painting is generally crude,
but occasionally there is some decoration evi-
dently intended, though its meaning is very dif-
ficult to decipher. In one instance, however, this
decoration has a special, deliberate significance.
When there is a marriageable daughter in the
house, the lintel of the door and the window sur-
roundings are ornamented with little irregular
bands and rude, conventionalised designs of
colour, which is a sign to the marriageable young
man that inside, if he will, he may find a wife.

The interior of the house is usually divided
into two rooms, in most cases separated by the
main entrance. In one room the whole family
live, eat, and sleep ; in the other, dwelling in more
or less noisy contentment, are the cows, pigs,
geese, and chickens. The great brick or stone
stove is the most conspicuous feature of the in-
terior. It frequently serves as a bed during the
cold winter nights.

235

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

The peasant lives simply. The vegetables
that he raises in his garden furnish all his food,
except on holidays and at weddings, when he
permits himself a bit of meat. Potatoes are his
great staple, but he is also fond of cabbage, beets,
and beans, and he occasionally grows some corn.
Of the cabbage he makes soups and pressed
cakes. He has also a thick grain porridge, known
as kaszia, and he likes especially a soup made of
red beets and known as barszcz. This is really
excellent. Most of his produce he uses himself,
but some he sells in the city markets.

In summer he usually dresses in a thin linen
shirt and trousers, home-made, and to this, in
winter, he adds a sheepskin coat or serdak, with
the fleece turned inside. He goes barefooted most
of the time, and frequently bareheaded, also, al-
though he likes to wear an old battered felt hat.

And the women! What a medley of colour!
Red, yellow, blue, green, silver, and gold, with
laces and coral about the neck or in the hair.
The patterns and styles defy description. Some
of the girls are handsome enough for a painting.
The gorali, or mountain peasants of the Carpa-
thians, have a particularly picturesque dress, and
the simple yet impressive dignity of their car-
riage adds greatly to their picturesqueness.
These grfrali are straight, tall, and lithe, with
swarthy complexions and straight hair, which
makes them strongly resemble the North Ameri-

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THE POLISH PEASANT

can Indian type. Such costumes! You will no-
tice many a handsome fellow tramping along the
road, his long white cloak partly drawn together
over his shoulders and held by a coloured ribbon
across the chest. He knows he is good-looking,
but his is such a clean, clear-eyed, manly, and
contented type that you quite forgive him for the
touch of vanity.

Many of the women have the dark, rich Slav
type of beauty. But they age very quickly, and
soon become withered old crones. One of these
young women, clad in her tight-fitting black velvet
bodice, richly ornamented, with her headkerchief
of brilliant parti-coloured silk, is a sight for a
Titian. She is accustomed to go barefooted, even
on the way to church. But on this occasion she
carries over her shoulder her heavy black top-
boots, with their curious*, small, high French
heels, and, on entering the church, she puts them
on. Why should she wear them out unnecessa-
rily, when her feet are used to the stones of the
mountain road? She frequently wears a red
coral necklace that costs up in the hundreds of
dollars, and she has been known to have her
whole dowry in this neck ornament.

There is an inborn courtesy and poetic sensi-
bility about these children of nature that is
very beautiful. When a peasant meets you he
always removes his hat and says : " Nech bendie
pochwalony Jezus Cforystus." (" Blessed be the

237

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

Lord Jesus Christ") The reply is: " Na wiek i
wiek6w." . ("For ages and ages.")

Since the middle of the past century the cor-
vee, or task work, has been abolished in Poland,
and from that time the work of the peasants on
the estates has been the result of a free contract.
Their relations to the nobility and estate pro-
prietors are generally good and helpful. In gen-
eral, the peasants are well treated, and they know
it. Some of the proprietors complain that they
are losing their old-time respectful manners, and,
with the modern ideas of democracy, are acquir-
ing an offensive manner of independence. This
is, perhaps, more noticeable in Galicia than
elsewhere.

Peasant village life is simple and regular. The
head man, known as the wo*jt, is a sort of justice
of the peace and president of the council com-
bined. He is selected by the peasants themselves,
and is looked to by the higher authorities as the
responsible man in the community. Each peas-
ant owns a bit of land. The holdings are divided
up among the children of the household, and this
tends to make them smaller with each succeed-
ing generation. Some holdings, however, are
still comparatively large — twelve morg, or about
twenty-four acres, being not uncommon. The
few who are without their own piece of
ground are called kormorniki (from komora —
room). They have to room with strangers, and

238

THE POLISH PEASANT

are looked down upon by the other peasants.
Their greatest wish is to have their own bit of
land, and nothing can make up for the lack of
it — not even money.

The lot of the women is hard. As among all
original Slav races, the Polish woman of the
lower classes has not yet emerged from the physi-
cal and mental slavery of former ages. Among
the Polish peasants, as among the Russians, she
is valued chiefly for the work she can do and for
the number of children she can bear. What little
freedom and happiness she has ceases after mar-
riage, and a peasant woman, old, stooped, and
haggard at twenty, with a heavy, stupid child in
her arms, wearily tramping the muddy road of
some village, or driving the cows afield in the
pelting rain, is a sight to personify " dull care,"
a typical " woman with the hoe." There are a
few bright spots in her life; at least one bright
spot, and that is the day upon which she marries.
She is wooed with much the same ardour as is
her more favoured sister. Perhaps her husband
really does love her, but, if he does, he certainly
shows it in a queer way.

A wedding among the Krakowiaks — peasants
of the vicinity of Cracow — is a very picturesque
ceremony. I remember one very pretty occasion
which is worth describing. Early one morning
there was a great ringing of bells and clatter
of horsehoofs in front of the manor house.

239

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

Investigation revealed four tall, handsome peas-
ant boys, mounted on spirited chargers, dressed
in gorgeous costumes of red and black, with hats
decorated fantastically with peacock plumes.
These were the best men, or " druzboVie," who
had come to invite the young ladies of the manor
to the wedding. It was decided that we should
all go, as this is customary among the Poles.

On our way to the country church where the
ceremony was to be performed we passed the
thatched home of the bride-to-be, around which
was gathered the whole village, in gala attire,
some on horseback, some standing in groups on
the road, others in doorways, while laughter,
singing, and bell-ringing were heard on every
side. The sister of the bride, in her rainbow-
coloured costume, came running out, her face all
wreathed in smiles, holding a bottle of wine in
one hand and a glass in the other. We must
drink the bride's health. It seemed like a scene
out of a play. By the side of the carriage the
peasant band played its merriest tunes, while
the bride and her whole family knelt and kissed
the hands of the party from the manor. One
young peasant boy begged for the honour of
climbing up by the coachman, and once installed
there, enlivened the rest of the drive by singing
at the top of his fresh young voice all the songs
he could think of. The old custom of bearing
away the bride still persists. This one was

240

THE POLISH PEASANT

seized by the groom's people and bundled into
her carriage (a rough basket affair), all the
while bathed in tears — that is, she pretended to
be. It is, of course, one of the forms of etiquette
for a bride to cry. The whole cavalcade then
moved on with two of the " best men " preceding
and two bringing up the rear. What a clatter
we made!

After the church ceremony, which was very
simple, and during which we sat in the one pew
while the peasants knelt with bowed heads on
the floor, we drove again to the bride's home.
She would have it that we enter for a few mo-
ments. In the scrupulously clean living-rooms
we again drank the health of the newly-married
pair, and then adjourned to the next room, where
the band was playing, and the space cleared for
dancing. Everything seemed perfectly natural
to the Poles present, but my surprise may be im-
agined when four gaily-dressed peasant youths
came up and bowed to the young ladies of the
estate, asking for the honour of a dance. It was
impossible to refuse, as the peasant knights were
models of grace and respect. This is an accepted
custom. When a peasant marriage takes place
the master of the village and the young ladies of
the manor are invited to attend the dance. The
gentleman of the house always dances with the
bride, and the ladies with the peasant men.

After the dance our carriage was escorted

241

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

home, and in the afternoon the newly-married
pair, with the best men and the bridegroom, came
to receive the best wishes of the estate and to
have their photographs taken.

These peasants are never really common, and,
even when brought in close touch with them,
there is no coarseness or vulgarity to be noticed.
They have no slang in their language — until they
come to America — and they are even poetical in
some of their expressions.

Harvest is the gala time of the year. There is
fulness and plenty and happiness everywhere,
and this is shown even in the customs of the
fields. In Ruthenia they have a very pretty and
picturesque way of celebrating " harvest home."
After the wheat or rye has been gathered in, the
reapers, by vote, pick out the prettiest girl among
them. They all twine a wreath of flowers and
put it on her head. She is given two brides-
maids, who are also decked with flowers, and the
whole company marches to the manor, singing
and merrymaking. There the lady of the house
takes the wreath from the girl's head, gives her
a piece of money, and all go off, singing, to the
village inn, where, by the munificence of the gen-
tleman, they partake of liquid refreshments to
their hearts' content.

The Polish peasant is not exactly bright intel-
lectually. What peasant is? He is slow in
thought, but far from being a clod like his Rus-

242

THE POLISH PEASANT

sian brother. The Polish peasant gets a little
schooling, and the upper classes are now bend-
ing their energies to give him more, recognising
the fact that, if the peasant is the nation's hope,
it is a better investment for the future to make
him worthy of the great task and opportunity
before him than to give large and indiscriminate
gifts to charity. In Kussia it has been a penal
offence to teach a Polish peasant anything in
Polish, and many difficulties have been put in the
way of teaching him anything at all, in any
language. In Prussia he may be taught, but, as
the instruction must be in German, the poor
peasant, who has scarcely enough natural capac-
ity to grasp the elements of his own tongue, learns
but very little when abstruse subjects are pre-
sented to him in a language of which he is en-
tirely ignorant.

In Galicia attempts are made to give him
systematic instruction. Of religious training
and drill he receives a great deal. While in
Zbaraz I visited a school for peasant children.
Its sessions were held in a rustic little one-room
building with the conventional thatched roof.
The walls of this room, instead of being hung
with geographical maps, charts, and other educa-
tional paraphernalia, were almost literally
covered with portraits of Kaiser Franz Joseph,
the late Kaiserin Elizabeth and Prince Rudolph,
and many different varieties of Catholic religious

243

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

pictures. Sprigs of evergreen and little bunches
of field flowers gave a natural country air to the
place. The room, which was, perhaps, fifty by
fifty feet, contained one hundred and fifty-one
scholars, boys and girls, Polish and Ruthenian,
crowded so closely that one benchful in front
had to sit down all together, else all could not
have found room.

The youngsters were from three to twelve years
of age, all barefoot and bareheaded, the boys in
long, baggy, mud-colored linen shirt and trou-
sers, the girls in the most brilliant of colours.
The best pupils were called up to stand in the
front row for examination. The village priest,
who was the teacher, made them recite the cate-
chism for my benefit, which they did in the most
sing-song and unintelligible fashion. Each one
joined in the responses, in his native tongue, re-
gardless of the effect of the chorus. They re-
cited verses from the saints, and then had some
practice in mental arithmetic. Finally, for my
especial benefit, the prize scholar was asked
where was America. He hesitated a moment,
then said he did not know, except that it was far
off, and that it was the country to which good
Polish boys went when they died. A number
of small religious pictures and prayer-books
were distributed to the bright boys as prizes, and
coral wreaths and rosaries to the girls, and the
session was over.

244

THE POLISH PEASANT

The vital, characteristic fact of the peasant's
life is his religion. He is perhaps the most de-
vout peasant in the world, and, beyond a doubt,
is the most faithful of all the adherents of the
Church of Rome. Once or twice during his life-
time he makes a pilgrimage to some sacred shrine,
such as Czenstochowa or Kalwarya.

Most of the legends and general folklore of the
peasant are religious in character. Almost all
of these quaint and beautiful stories have their
origin in his love and reverence for the Blessed
Virgin, around whose personality cluster hun-
dreds of parables and stories full of a poetic
fancy and devotional beauty, gathering up in
them all the ideals of goodness, love, mercy, and
womanly tenderness to which the peasant mind
could rise. Matka Boska, the Mother of God,
as the peasants affectionately call her, is the
refuge, the protector, the ideal of all that is
beautiful and holy. Once, in the far-off ages,
say the peasants, God was lonesome in heaven.
There was no one with whom the great Creator
could speak, and so, out of the lily, he created
something more beautiful even than that flower,
and called it Matka Boska.

A few of these legends of the Virgin have been
collected and published in book form. " The
Last Blades of Wheat " is one of the most beauti-
ful and typical of these. It is the peasant's story
of the flood. The Golden Age, he holds, was

245

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

when grain sowed itself and brought forth a hun-
dredfold. In that age everything that grew
was larger and more beautiful than anything
to-day. But mankind was very wicked! God's
blessing made them proud. They grew worse
and worse, until God determined to destroy them
He swore that all alive should be swept from the
earth and no grain should remain, not even one
kernel for seed. Then He smote a great cloud,
and it burst and descended in a flood upon the
earth, and for forty days no land appeared. But
the Blessed Virgin looked with pity on suffering
humankind, and interceded for man. She de-
scended to earth, to the flooded fields, hovered
over the waste of waters, and gathered here and
there stray blades of wheat, looking to heaven
all the while, and pleading, " Only this, Lord
God, spare only this." The Almighty Father,
the peasants say, could never refuse anything to
the mother of His Son. So He waved His al-
mighty hand, and the sky became clear, the floods
abated, and the grain that the Blessed Virgin had
saved from the flood remained as seed for man-
kind.

In winter, also, the Virgin is the protector and
hope of the poor peasant. On the bleak Lithua-
nian plains the wolves would quite destroy the
little peasant villages were it not that Saint
Michael scatters them so that they never attack
in large numbers. Yet even his aid is not al-

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ways sufficient Sometimes, in the biting winter,
these hungry beasts come upon a sleeping village
with horrible growlings. But when Saint
Michael fails, then Panienka Swienta (the Holy
Maiden) comes to the rescue. Holding a candle
with its flame downward toward the angry
beasts, she frightens them until they slink away
to their forest dens. When the peasant awakes,
during the bleak winter nights, and hears near
his village the howling of the wolves, he fears
not, but nestles deeper in his sheepskin, murmur-
ing the prayer, " In Thy care, O Mary." Every
February he celebrates Gromnice, or the Feast
of Candles, in honor of this deliverance.

247

XIV

THE PATHETIC OUTCAST OF THE
AGES

WHEN some literary historian of the fu-
ture writes the story of decisive loves
that have influenced the history of
nations, he will find material for at least one
strong and picturesque chapter in Poland.

Half a thousand years ago the Polish King
Kazimierz the Great fell in love with a beautiful
Jewess. About all that we know of her is that
she was very beautiful, and that, for love of her,
the King permitted the Jews — then hated and
despised nomads in all Europe — to enter and
make their home in Poland. One can imagine
the love of this king when viewing the once splen-
did building in Cracow erected by him as a pal-
ace for Esther. From this palace, however, it is
but a step to the " Kazimierz " of the city (which
perpetuates the name of this same monarch), the
section where the Jews congregate, and which is
a typical ghetto. There you have the whole Jew-
ish question before you.

The Jew is such a large factor in Polish na-
tional life that in speaking of Poland one must,

248

THE PATHETIC OUTCAST OF THE AGES

perforce, consider him rather at length. I saw
him in almost every condition and occupation,
excepting only his private family life. It is ex-
tremely difficult for a stranger to enter into this
life. Therefore, it is with much regret that I am
unable to speak, from first-hand knowledge, of
that phase of Jewish life which is, beyond a
doubt, most attractive and exemplary. The tes-
timony to the temperance, restraint, frugality,
and family pride of the Jew is universal.

There are three millions of Polish Jews, more
than half of that number being in Kussian Po-
land. It is a mistake to look upon these as in-
truders into the Slav Empire. The Jew really
counts among its earliest inhabitants. Soon
after the Asiatic conquests of Alexander the
Great many Jews emigrated to the principal
Greek communities of the Crimea and shared in
their commercial prosperity. This first immi-
gration probably brought the Jews into what is
now Slavonic country.

Historians do not agree upon the date of the
first Jewish immigration into Poland. It is cer-
tain, however, that, in the middle of the 11th
century, when Mieczyslaw III. was king, great
numbers of Hebrews, driven from Germany by
the Crusades, came to Poland. An earlier im-
migration from South Russia is sometimes cited,
even as early as the 9th century. Since the 11th
century, however, Poland has been looked upon

249

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

by the Jews as their temporary home during the
days of their exile. The best indication of their
influence and prosperity in Poland during the
12th century is the fact that almost all Polish
coins of that period bear inscriptions in Hebrew
characters. Moreover, one of the earliest figures
of Polish history was a Jew — Abraham Prochow-
nik — who minted these coins and who picked out
the first Piast as Polish king.

During the Middle Ages the Jews formed the
commercial or bourgeois class in all Slav coun-
tries. Then it was that they — with Germans and
a few other foreigners — began to monopolise the
business of the country, a monopoly they held till
quite recent times. Among people who are ex-
treme in temperament and racial constitution
like the Slavs, who, up to within the memory of
those now living, were either nobles or peasants,
and who scorned trade, the Jews constituted that
middle class which is the backbone of all nations.
Not realising the value of this element in their
national life, the Poles and Russians hated the
Jew, and even to-day it is his commercial suc-
cess, his shrewdness in finance, which is the prin-
cipal count against him.

The Polish Jew has not been without patriot-
ism. In his famous poem, " Pan Tadeusz," the
Polish poet Mickiewicz heartily praises the pa-
triotic Jew Jankel. The Jew indeed has rendered
splendid service in Poland in many critical mo-

250

THE PATHETIC OUTCAST OF THE AGES

ments in her history. A whole cavalry regiment
of Jews fought under Kosciuszko in 1794, and,
after distinguishing themselves, were killed al-
most to a man by Suwarow at Praga in defence
of Warsaw. It was only later, when, largely be-
cause of persecution, or because other avenues of
usefulness had been closed to him, that the Jew
became a money-changer, a " factor " on the large
estates, with the demoralisation which such a
calling inevitably entailed. The intelligent Polish
Jews, to-day, mainly class themselves with the
liberals, who are indifferent in religious matters,
or anti-clerical. " We have come to consider our-
selves Poles rather than Jews, and many of us
would become Catholics — for Catholicism and
the national spirit are in many ways identical —
only that we think that by remaining Jews we
can exercise an influence on the uncultivated
masses and guide them into Polish national chan-
nels. All the Jew wants is to profit by modern
progress in his own way, and not to give up his
national individuality — at least not immedi-
ately — in order to benefit by the progress made
by civilisation. As an ideal, we hope for the final
absorption of the Jews of Poland into the Polish
nationality."

And yet, when everything possible has been said
in his favour, the Jew remains one of the great
problems of Poland. Of course, when he abjures
the customs and traditions of his people, he be-

251

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

comes, to all intents and purposes, a Pole, and
is, in that case, quite able to take care of himself
intellectually and in other lines of life's activi-
ties. He goes into the learned professions and
distinguishes himself. He masters politics, and,
where anti-Semitism is not too rabid, he proves
that he can hold his own in any office. How rap-
idly, under other skies and when given " half a
chance," he becomes a different being, Americans
can see in all their great cities every day.

In America, the Polish Jew, as we see him in
the ghettos of our great cities, a new importation,
is the most unsavoury, most repellent of his kind,
but he is infinitely dirtier and more repellent
in Europe, particularly in his home in Poland,
in the squalid, wretched villages on the Russian
plains, in the " Kazimierz " of Cracow, or hud-
dled in the Jewish quarter of Warsaw. No one
wants his company. He separates himself from
the world and the world widens the separation.

" The Jew is really not to blame for this sep-
aratism. Accidents of history, fatal to him, have
caused it The feudal system of the Middle Ages
surrounded him with a wall of contempt and
isolation. On the one hand, the social conditions
and theories of the period made him a caste apart,
a caste of merchants and middlemen; on the
other, religious hatred persecuted and tortured
him with all the cruelties that human inventive-
ness could conceive. He was obliged to engage

252

THE PATHETIC OUTCAST OF THE AGES

in commerce and usury, and, as the theories of
the times, most clearly expressed in the doctrines
of the Fathers of the Church, held all commerce
in contempt, he bore the odium of a calling which
he was forced to adopt. In western Europe fa-
naticism and ignorance pursued him until the
end of the 18th century. In Poland he was more
fortunate for some time, because he was not, as
in other countries, the property of the kings, but
formed a separate people, enjoying a liberal
autonomy."

The Polish Jew, thanks to the inhuman laws of
Russia closing most of the honourable careers
and vocations to him, has lost nearly all the pas-
toral, agricultural instincts of his race. You
rarely see him working in the fields. You may
find him (or, more properly, her) in a cotton
factory in L6dz ; you may find him a painter or a
low-class mechanic. But he is essentially and
almost always a middleman. It is not so much
the business he does himself ; it is the vast amount
that is done through him. He sells everything
to everybody. In countries where a number of
languages are spoken he is the only one who
takes the trouble to learn several; consequently
he is the necessary interpreter, although his
services are always rendered under difficulties
and are usually expensive.

My first real experience with the Slavonic Jew
was during my trip to Kamieniec, from Austria,

253

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

over the steppes of Podolia. A Russian Jew, a
bent, sallow, long-bearded, beady-eyed old fellow,
volunteered to help me. As I knew no Russian
and the border officials knew no English, French,
or German, I was reluctantly compelled to ac-
cept his assistance. He spoke a vile German, a
jargon full of so many uncouth " foreignised "
words that I had to tell him three times, in my
best Viennese, what I wanted before he under-
stood me. His Russian was evidently as bad, or
worse, for he had to repeat my message three or
four times before the frontier official could com-
prehend him. But, in return, I gave him enough,
I doubt not, to keep him for a month. For the
Jew is generally wretchedly poor. This tattered,
venerable Israelite who drove me to Kamieniec
had a wife and five children to support, he told
me, and yet he received only a ruble and a half
(75 cents) a week for driving.

I saw the Polish Jew at home first in Cracow.
The street known as the " Kazimierz " is one of
the extraordinary sights of the world. Quite late
in the morning — for in Poland the Jew is not an
early riser — down come the shutters and open
come the doors and windows, and the stooped,
sallow brood come forth. The Polish Jew is not
a healthy individual ; he even looks consumptive,
in striking contrast to the red-cheeked, vigorous
peasant. Dirt, poverty, and the physical and
moral degradation of his life in the ghetto have

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made him a very pitiable object. He keeps him-
self peculiar by his dress. He wears his Israel-
itish gaberdine, or long, black coat, which he
calls halat, reaching nearly to the ground, tightly
buttoned even in the days of July. What he
wears underneath, if anything, is not known!
His boots are high and generally carefully
blacked. In Russia they are well greased. He
wears a felt hat underneath which, covering his
shaven head, is a black skull-cap. He always
has a long beard and, when permitted, side curls.
If Moses and Abraham were not Polish Jews,
there is a remarkable coincidence between the
old Bible pictures and the modern type. In Ga-
licia the side curls reach their climax in two,
which are his special pride, one at each side of
his temple. These pendants (tire-buchons, cork-
screws, the French call them) he treasures as
the apple of his eye. Watch him as he saunters
along the streets of Cracow in the evening, lightly
brandishing his little stick. He winds these curls
lovingly about his finger, anointing them fre-
quently with copious applications of saliva. In
Russia an imperial ukase forbids these cork-
screws. The women wear a turban, formed of a
handkerchief, and many of them would be beau-
tiful if they were not ragged and dirty. If you
walk through the " Kazimierz," you will find that
the denizen of this section of the city is very in-
quisitive, and will even address you, uninvited,

255

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

with some inquiry as to your destination, some
remark as to your wishes, your person, or your
general well-being. If you speak in reply, he
drops at once his ear of curiosity and puts on a
cunning servility which scents Geschaft. This
servile air has become part of him. I have seen
him when summoned by an impecunious aristo-
crat who wished to borrow money, stand outside
the manor house, hat in hand, humbly begging
the master for permission to kiss his hand.

In Galicia he is not kept down as severely as
in Kussia, yet even here his hand is against every
man and every man's hand against him. He is
jostled and hooted at in the streets, and his life
is made miserable by peasant and aristocrat
alike.

The Jew of Lemberg is as neglected, but, per-
haps, a bit more enterprising than his brother of
Cracow. Almost half of the population (35,000)
of Tarnopol are Jews, and the Jew market in this
city is the most unsavoury place I ever saw. The
poor Tarnopol Hebrew is the sport of the town.
The young gymnasium student considers it great
fun to raise a riot by " running amuck " in the
Jewish quarter. With a large stick he will beat
every Hebrew head he can see, and then get out
of the way as rapidly as his legs can carry him.
Cries of "Ai vai, ai vai," the Hebrew wail,
and maledictions in mongrel Polish, and then
patient servility again. Always a sport and a

250

THE PATHETIC OUTCAST OF THE AGES

jest, always a thing to be hunted, always an
Isaac of York !

It must also be said that the Jew is almost al-
ways law-abiding and peaceable, and asks only to
be let alone. It is probably true that wealthy
Jews provide the active revolutionists in Eussia
with money, particularly during the late crisis.
The Jewish revolutionary organisation, the
Bund, undoubtedly does so. That is not suf-
ficient reason, however, why the soldiers should
invade the shops of the ghetto of Warsaw, and,
under the excuse of searching for firearms and
prohibited literature, toss everything about in
wanton destruction and destroy most of the
stock, while the Jew crouches on one side, dumb
with terror. Many of these cowering old He-
brews have no other politics than to be left in
quiet to make a scanty livelihood by barter. Dur-
ing a riot young Jews are rounded up by the sol-
diers as ranchmen round up cattle. Despite
centuries of opposition, the Jew remains uncom-
promisingly orthodox, and this, perhaps, is one
of the reasons for the hatred against him. He is
certainly religious, according to the letter of the
law. His family life is usually morally pure and
founded on filial duty, respect for women, and
the observance of religious traditions. In these
matters he has stood as an exemplar even to the
Poles.

On the border between Austria and Russia,

257

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

particularly in the South, the Jew is very much
in evidence, and is really indispensable to trav-
ellers in crossing the frontier, because of his
knowledge of several languages, and also because
he controls the means of local transportation.
Many kinds and great numbers of him are always
on the border. The Austrian Jew is not permit-
ted to drive you into Russia (that is, to any dis-
tance), nor is the Russian Jew allowed to come
over the border to get you — for more than a short
space.

At Husiatyn, the last railroad station at the
point I crossed in Austria, I had to hire one Jew
just to take me over the border. Immediately
on entering Russia he consigned me to another.
The first man, with the ineradicable racial eye to
business, contrived to be so long about matters
that it was well into the afternoon before I could
start. Of course, therefore, I must stop at his
hotel, u fur Mittagessen und Schlafen."

It was a fairly decent room, and the walls wore
covered with Catholic religious pictures, out of a
businesslike deference, I presume, to the prob-
able faith of the bulk of the patrons. I also no-
ticed a seductive advertisement of a steamship
company, setting forth, in several languages, the
claims of America as " the promised land." The
agents of steamship companies will have a great
deal to answer for some day, and neither the
poor Jew whom they have deceived nor the Amer-

258

THE PATHETIC OUTCAST OF THE AGES

ican upon whom has been thrust a most puzzling
factor in his social problem, will, if consulted,
make it any easier for them.

From this hotel a Jewish cocher, in the employ
of the first man, drove me across the border at
Husiatyn. The dividing line between the do-
mains of Austrian Kaiser and Russian Tzar at
this point is a small stream, spanned by a rather
rickety wooden bridge, with a white line drawn
in the centre. As I waited patiently, seated in
the droshky on the bridge, for the seemingly end-
less formalities before entering Russia, I noted
the long line of vehicles — lumber teams, landaus,
fiacres, droshkies — all driven by Jews, who
sighed and swore and smoked their long, thin
cigarettes, while the imperturbable, white-uni-
formed Russian officials examined the passports.
Contemptuous is the only adjective to apply to
the treatment accorded to the Jew all over Rus-
sia. He exists only by sufferance, and even that
sufferance he does not obtain in all sections of
the Empire.

Once across the border and in the customhouse
at Husiatyn, this contempt became unmistak-
able. A tall, thin Jew, his passport book in his
hand, stalked into the room where I was opening
my baggage. A gendarme grabbed him at once,
tore open his long coat, ran his hands roughly,
even insultingly, through the clothes, boots, and
hair of his victim. He found nothing contra-

259

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

band, and the Jew was permitted to leave, which
he did, with a look of such patient servility, min-
gled with so much, only ill-concealed, hatred on
his face that I positively shuddered. I saw this
same Jew afterward at a little distance from the
village when I had started for my long drive in-
land. He told me in his uncouth tongue, partly
German, partly Hebrew, that the Jews who did
business across the border by transporting mer-
chandise or conducting travellers were regularly
submitted to this insulting examination, and bled
for a large proportion of their slender income by
the officials. Sometimes they are forced to give
up business entirely, owing to interference on
the part of the police, who accuse them of smug-
gling. Taciturn and patient, the venerable Jew
who drove me from the border to Kamieniec was
the very embodiment of suffering and oppression.
Whenever I addressed him he started fearfully,
as though detected in a crime, and replied with
such a mournful resignation of tone that it was
uncanny and pitiful.

There was some trouble in Kussian Husiatyn
as I drove out. Some Jews were objecting to
being driven somewhere by a gendarme. A mes-
sage was sent to the Kaserne (barracks), and
presently a squad of Cossacks rode up, and soon
" persuaded " the poor wretches with their whips.
One of them — I afterward learned — died of the
beating received. Four or five hundred Cossacks,

260

THE PATHETIC OUTCAST OF THE AGES

in full war equipment, filed out of the town soon
afterward, mounted on wiry little ponies.
" Where are they going? " I asked my conductor.
He shuddered and looked fearfully behind him.
" Don't ask me," he trembled.

Squalid and wretched beyond description are
the villages — Jewish and Russian alike — along
that road across the plains. They are all alike —
one street — just one — one wooden or mud house
leaning against the other, and a great mud-
puddle in the centre, in which geese, pigs, and
babies swim, and horses are watered. Put in an
ox-team or two, clouds of dust, or a sea of mud,
according to the season, a dozen or so slatternly
women gossiping — and you have a typical Rus-
sian village of the plains. Most of these are full
of Jews. They act as innkeepers, and will stable
your horses and attend to your own gastronomic
wants, all for, perhaps, thirty kopecks, that is,
fifteen cents.

The Jew literally swarms all along the border
between Russia and her western neighbours.
This makes Austria, in particular, very nervous.
Despite the fifty-verst law * Russia has been
gradually pushing her Hebrew population toward
the Austrian frontier, till to-day the Jew forms
the bulk of the inhabitants of border towns, espe-
cially the great railroad centres. What is to

* Jews are forbidden, by Russian law, to live within fifty
versts (about thirty-three miles) of the border.

261

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

prevent this " pushing " being carried farther,
indeed quite across the frontier, where there are
already many more of this despised nationality
than the unhappy Austrian government knows
how to manage? There are other causes than
pure philanthropy for the Baron de Hirsch,
South American, and Holy Land colonisation
schemes. They would provide a much-needed
outlet for Russia's and Austria's unwelcome
Hebrew population.

The Jew is permitted by imperial law to live in
certain sections of the Russian Empire — the
" Pale," as it is called — but he may not, under
pain of exile and imprisonment, live in any other.
This " Pale of Jewish Settlement " comprises the
ten ancient provinces of Poland and fifteen of the
fifty " governments " constituting Russia proper.
All these districts are located in the west of the
Empire, and with the exception of the southeast-
ern section, are not very fertile, so that the Jew
has but little chance to cultivate the soil. He is
crowded into the cities. The Pale, in fact, is one
vast ghetto.

The government of Warsaw is one of the sec-
tions in which the Jew may live. While I was in
the Polish metropolis, 10,000 Jews, not wanted
in Moscow, were unceremoniously chased — so
report said — to Warsaw. At any rate, I saw
hordes of them entering the city, in small compa-
nies, on foot, with great packs on their backs, and

262

THE PATHETIC OUTCAST OF THE AGES

accompanied by an army of children, all dirty,
weary, and fearful, like hunted animals. The
Warsaw Jew has a large section of the city ex-
clusively to himself, a city within a city, a city
of rabbit-warrens, in which the transaction of a
vast amount of business with his own kind and
with the Gentiles often makes him rich. He
rises frequently to commercial and intellectual
eminence in the city, and sometimes to social dis-
tinction. One of the cleverest, most personally
beautiful and attractive women I met in War-
saw, one of the editors of a leading newspaper,
was a Jewess. Many of the editors and leaders
of political thought are Jews.

To the unprejudiced student and observer, it
seems plain that the Polish Jew, with all his
actual evil and his potential good, is just what
centuries of persecution and oppression have
made him. Where he has not had isolation forced
on him, he has proven his marvellous adaptabil-
ity to almost every kind of surroundings. Yet
it is his racial solidarity which is opposed, and
his isolation is often self-sought. His position
in the world is a tremendous problem, and the
centuries have furnished no real clue to its solu-
tion. One thing is certain : the campaign of anti-
Semitism as waged in Europe to-day will never
solve it.

" That silent, defenceless army, though always
defeated, never loses, never flinches, nor turns

263

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

back, no matter how strong the fortress or how
large the garrison arrayed against it. Always
suffering, it is ever victorious; physically cow-
ardly, it never flinches; but, gathering up its
scattered forces, stands shoulder to shoulder and
man to man, vanquished by all, yet seeing all its
conquerors, proud kingdoms and mighty empires
though they be, crumble into forgotten dust,
whilst it rises once more with eternal suffering
and untiring patience, with a mixture of fear and
valour, humility and arrogance, to confront
younger nations with its insoluble problem."

264

XV

POLISH MUSIC AND THE SLAV
TEMPERAMENT

WHY has all history shown that music,
the finest, most exquisite of the arts, is
so often the sweetness distilled from
suffering? Why has its most subtle development
always come from the races that have suffered,
from the peoples that have been oppressed even
until they have lost their national existence?
Why is despair the dominant note of the Slav
temperament, as it is bodied forth in art? We
must go far back to even attempt an answer.

Nature and history have combined to draw the
Slav soul tense. Happiness and variety of life
are very desirable, but they seldom breed artists,
or exquisite temperaments of any kind. Monot-
ony was on the face of nature when she turned
it to the Slav. Severity was the mood in which
history has always regarded him. And he has
responded by tuning all his art, and particularly
his music, to the "heights and depths of a di-
vine despair."

• As-tu reflechi combien nous sommes organists
pour le malheur? " wrote Flaubert to George

265

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

Sand. " Beauty in its highest form invariably
moves the sensitive soul to tears," said Edgar
Poe. " Virtue, like sweet odours," declared d'ls-
raeli, " is most fragrant when crushed." These
thoughts were uttered at about the same time,
and, together, they furnish a vignette picture of
the Slav temperament

Melancholy and sadness have ever been the
portion of the Slav. Even when he is gay the
effort is often evident. The country in which
he lived originally, and in which so many of his
race still live, is not cheerful. There is much
snow in winter, and even in summer most of the
colouring is dull. Dun, neutral tints cover the
face of the landscape on the plains, the home of
the race. Where there is colour, it is not varied.
A pine forest in Lithuania, the neutral reds and
browns stretching unbroken for many miles, is
one of the most beautiful but maddeningly monot-
onous of sights. The whole landscape in Russia
and in the greater part of ancient Poland (ex-
cepting always the border mountains) is lacking
in relief and character. The only vivid colouring
is on the dress of the peasants, who seem to try
to supply by art and handicraft what nature has
withheld. The vast, treeless, gently undulating
plains involuntarily make one sad. The eye
glides over seemingly infinite spaces like the
wastes of the ocean, which lose themselves on the
horizon. Where does the earth end and the sky

266

MUSIC AND THE SLAV TEMPERAMENT

begin? No landmark rests the eye; no hill, and,
for many miles, no tree. The mind is overcome
by a vague feeling of unrest. Involuntarily, it
seemed, my companion, on part of the journey
over the steppes to Kamieniec, turned and said :
" Wie traurig! " " How sad ! " I echoed.

History has been even more severe than nature
on the Slav. His biography is a tragedy, and he
himself has generally been the victim. For cen-
turies he was the prey of the savage nomads from
Asia. Bloody, fierce conflict, battle constant and
to the death, for his home and family, has been
his lot. The sense of insecurity and apprehen-
sion never left him. As regularly as the winter
rolled around, Sienkiewicz tells us, the Pole3
said : " In the spring the horde will come."

This geographical position has been one of the
most powerful factors in the development of the
Slav. Constant, close contact with Eastern peo-
ples has inoculated him with some of the Eastern
mysticism and fatalism. This is noticeable even
in the Pole of to-day, though he does so strenu-
ously insist upon his pure Occidentalism. The
influence exerted by the repeated onslaught of
the Turk and Tartar can be traced in Polish
custom and costume, art and architecture, poetry
and politics. The national costume itself has a
strongly Oriental cast about it. The Polish aris-
tocrat and the Polish peasant walking almost side
by side in the procession of Corpus Christi, show

267

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

the flaming reds and yellows, the turban effects,
the gorgeous Eastern combinations of feather,
sash, girdle, boot. This is seen also in the peas-
ants, with their long white cloaks, with flaming
skirts, often slashed and spangled with colour.
Many a Cracovian costume might easily be mis-
taken for that of a Kurd or an East Indian, ex-
cept that the colours are rather more artistically
blended. The most casual observer will note the
dash of the Orient in Polish architecture. The
dome, even occasionally the minaret, the ara-
besque tracery, the rich kaleidoscopic, Byzantine
effect of the decorations in the churches — all par-
take of the symbolism of the Orient, and one of
the greatest of all Polish poets — Slowacki —
sings like a mystic bard of Teheran. Added to
the melancholy and volcanic resignation burned
into his soul during centuries of struggle with
nature and man, all the mysticism, fatalism,
sensuousness, of the Orient surged up against the
Pole, broke, and when it ebbed, the impress, the
savour of the East remained. The restless intel-
lectual vigour and military genius of the Occi-
dent nerved his breast and arm as he struggled,
but it could not quite turn back the undercurrent
from Asia.

These influences and many more must be un-
derstood and reckoned with before one can begin
to grasp what has burned in the soul of a Chopin,
a Slowacki, a Malczewski.

268

MUSIC AND THE SLAV TEMPERAMENT

To write of Polish art adequately would be to
write the whole history of probably the most
wonderfully artistic people of modern times. To
write of it at all is to begin with music — music of
a sad sweetness which is the very emotional soul
of the race. All Polish music is not Jeremiac.
Near Cracow it is often gay, even fiercely gay.
But the wail is rarely too deep for the easy find-
ing. While at Tarnopol, in Austrian Ruthenia,
I heard some of the real native Slav music, ren-
dered under very characteristic circumstances.
One evening a young Ruthenian priest (of the
Russian ritual) known to the family at whose
home I was staying, drove up to the door in his
peasant vehicle, bringing with him his zither.
He played well, and sang delightfully, with that
rich, round, full voice of beautiful, sympathetic
quality so often found among the Russians.
Many of the melodies were richly beautiful, at
times almost fiercely gay, but always undershot
with that inevitable sad, minor tone that affects
one like a blend of the Oriental and the Highland
Scotch. Weirdly beautiful — hauntingly beauti-
ful — yet inexpressibly sad are these Slavonic
folksongs, permeated with the breath of the
plains. Underneath the dare-devil mirth of the
Mazur always lurks what the Poles call the Zal.
There is no English equivalent for this word. It
is the very emotional soul of the Slav race, and
it means mingled reproach and sorrow, the vol-

269

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

canic resignation that comes only after ages of
suffering and wrong.

The real breath of the plains, the life of suf-
fering and woe, rings all through that typical
dirge of the steppes, known as " Kozak." A young
trooper of the Ukraine lies dying in the forest.
He sings a death wail, in which he recounts how
he fought, and bemoans the disobedience which
led him far from his home. The mother comes
at his call, and he begs her not to permit the
(Russian) priest to bury him, but to let his own
wild, freebooter companions lead him to the
tomb. The theme is sad enough, but the music!
One phrase will suffice to show its minor, haunt-
ing character:

jfg/.J»/J|;.J»JJ | J , .yj , l j r

The love and aptitude for music has its springs
deep down in the Slav nature. Karol Namy-
slawski's peasant orchestra, of Warsaw, has
shown that even the lowest type of Polish peas-
ant has a soul and nature responsive to music
such as is quite lacking in peasants of other
races — oddly enough, in the Russian peasant as
well.

One can see that these Polish children of
the soil feel the music they render. The Mus-
covite, Norwegian, Bohemian, and Finnish peas-

270

MUSIC AND THE SLAV TEMPERAMENT

ant themes have all the vitality of the peasants,
and generally, also, their coarseness and clumsi-
ness. Moniuszko's opera " Halka," however,
which is based wholly on Polish peasant themes,
has all the native grace, simplicity, and strength
of the soil, but none of the clod. The themes are
original and rich, and the Italian composer, Mas-
cagni, has declared that in this one work alone
he found themes enough for twenty operas.

The musical soul of Poland lies buried in Pere
la Chaise, the revered old cemetery of Paris.
Frederic Francois Chopin, son of a French father
by a Polish mother, Slav by birth, Parisian by
adoption, who sang the tragedy of his country in
sweet sounds, who poured into the ear of Europe
for the first time all the musical ideas, tonalities,
and rhythms of the East — who can add a word to
what has already been said of this wonderful,
sad soul? George Sand, the woman with a man's
nature, who became his idol, once told him:
" Your playing makes me live over again every
pain that has ever wrung my heart; and every
joy, too, that I have ever known is mine again."
Chopin was sick with the malady of the age —
revolt. Rebellion rings through all his work, and
none but Richard Wagner disputes with him the
rule of the past century in the highest musical
emotion. Chopin loved Poland madly, with the
abandon of a fanatic. Yet he was so feminine
that he never laid down his art for a sword in her

271

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

defence. He rang his dreams and his despair into
his music and put his fiery patriotism into his
polonaises. This he could do without fear of the
censor. The most terrible, iconoclastic ideas
are in his music, but the police knew it not. His
countrymen, however, know full well that it is
their heartstrings upon which he plays. They
have yearned to bring back his remains to his
native soil. It was a strange feeling — it seemed
of personal loss — that was evident in the very air
of Warsaw several years ago when it was an-
nounced that, although the French government
had consented to the removal of the remains, St.
Petersburg, knowing the love of the Poles for
Chopin, had withheld its permission, fearing " a
demonstration." And St. Petersburg was wise.

What niche in the century's temple of fame
will Paderewski occupy? It may be as yet too
early to predict, but German critics, the most se-
vere and exacting (and especially so in the case
of a Pole), declare that his opera " Manru " is
the work of an epoch, a flawless composition,
worked out upon themes of the same nature
as those of " Halka." Paderewski is an ardent
patriot. One of his latest manifestations of pa-
triotism is the colony of Polish aristocrats,
broken in fortune by the Russian revolution,
which he maintains at his Swiss chateau near
Lausanne.

The names of many other composers, singers,
and virtuosi are veritable household words with

272

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POLISH ART AND ARTISTS.
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MUSIC AND THE SLAV TEMPERAMENT

this people to whom music is such a vital fact,
but, except those of the Reszkes, Sembrich, Mo-
niuszko, and Moszkowski, the English-speaking
world knows nothing of them. And yet, is there
any modern composer of waltzes, with the pos-
sible exception of Johann Strauss, who can com-
pare with Moszkowski? Though Warsaw is the
home of the Reszkes, it is not often that the fa-
mous brothers are seen on the streets of the Po-
lish metropolis. When not en tour all over the
civilised world, their country estate near War-
saw absorbs their attention, and, of late years,
a visit to their hotel, the elegant Saski, in War-
saw, has been a thing of rare occurrence. Mar-
cella Sembrich Kochanska, who possesses, per-
haps, as perfect a voice, used with as perfect an
art, as has ever been heard on earth, and is, more-
over, pianist and violinist as well, is a patriotic
Pole. But she, in common with the other great
opera singers, belongs to the world. Sembrich
spends much of her time, when not singing, in
her Dresden home.

To attempt to write of Polish music and mu-
sicians is at once a bewilderment, a fascination,
a despair. There is no beginning and no end.
After all, just as the Polish artists themselves are
citizens of the world and belong to the inter-
national community of music, so their work is
part of the world's great store. It is to-day per-
haps better known than the musical contributions
of any other nationality.

273

XVI
A RACE OF ARTISTS BY BIRTH

IF music is the Polish art par excellence, emi-
nence in painting, literature, and the drama
indicates that the Poles are true artists in
every sense of the word.

A conception of Polish painting must of neces-
sity begin with Jan Matejko, although the pres-
ent-day school has not followed the old master of
historical realism. Matejko was the painter of
Polish history.

On a small side street in Cracow is a quiet,
unobtrusive house, its rooms lined and littered
with curious implements, trappings, and para-
phernalia of centuries gone. Knights and ladies,
men of church and chargers of war, could rise to
mass and feast and battle in these rooms if there
were only some angel of Ezekiel to make the dry
bones of vestment and weapon instinct with life.
The very bones themselves are all but present.
From a glass case on the wall, surrounded by
half -finished sketches, grins a plaster cast of the
skull of the great Kazimierz, King of Poland.

A dozen or more years ago the master hand
that could make these worthies of generations

274

A RACE OF ARTISTS BY BIRTH

past glow on the canvas as with life itself laid
down its brush. Before Jan Matejko exhibited
his masterpiece, " The Sermon of Skarga," in
Paris, in 1864, none but Frenchmen had taken
the Versailles prize for painting. Poland's his-
torical painter, who established the Academy of
Painting in Cracow, and was really the dean of
the Polish school of art, began, in 1864, to paint
the "critical moments in Polish history." His
fidelity to detail is marvellous. History itself
is not more accurate. When his canvases contain
two hundred figures (as they sometimes do), this
means that two hundred different individuals or
types have been studied and followed with such
laborious, scrupulous care that the painter occa-
sionally forgot his perspective, and, in the end,
quite ruined his eyesight. Historic faces can
often be recognised in his work, and sometimes
he uses himself as a type. When the tombs of
the kings in the Wawel were opened Matejko
took a cast of the skull of King Kazimierz the
Great Several months of study of the whitened
bone, the cast, and the trappings on the wall re-
sulted in a splendid canvas of the monarch, as
near to the man himself as a photograph.

Scenes of battle, covering four centuries of his
country's history, make up Matejko's work. " So-
bieski before Vienna," " The Prussians Bringing
Tribute," and " The Battle of Gninwald " are,
perhaps, the most famous, but " Kazanie Skargi "

275

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

("The Sermon of Skarga") is the most impres-
sive. It represents the priest Skarga prophesying
the downfall of Poland if the Poles do not mend
their ways. There is something majestic, like
the prophets of old, in the face of the brave
priest as he stands before the Diet preaching and
warning the proud, fractious nobles of the woes
that will come upon their country through their
lawlessness. Pride, power, and dissoluteness
stand out on some of the faces before him, while
on others can be plainly seen remorse, and on
others, fear. There is no blur of heads as the
figures fade into the background. Each face has
its own clear-cut individuality. For this paint-
ing the artist was decorated at the Paris Salon.

Matejko's was a beautiful, patriotic character.
He gave away his best paintings as free gifts, and
would not accept any return for his marvellous
restoration of the church of Panna Marya in
Cracow.

The paintings of Artur Grottger are almost
as popular with patriotic Poles as those of Ma-
tejko. His crayon drawings, "Warsaw," "Po-
land," and " Lithuania," representations of the
three divisions of the ancient Commonwealth,
are especially fine in their bold, artistic insight.
Grottger's working years were, unfortunately, so
short — they were only six — that ln>, contributions
to Polish art are not very numerous.

The present-day school of Polish painting has
276

A RACE OF ARTISTS BY BIRTH

not followed Matejko. Symbolism and melan-
choly were persistent, and, although we find the
realism of the two Cossacks with their splendid
horses and battle scenes, and the landscapes of
Brandt and Chelmonski, the tendency is toward
the allegorical groups of Siemiradzki, the neu-
rotic, often obscure, symbolism of Malczewski,
and the idealised types of Stachiewicz, the last
representing strongly the new school of illus-
trators. Malczewski's canvases remind one of
de Quincey's " Confessions of an Opium Eater."
He would have made splendid presentations of
scenes from Slowacki's " Kordjan." His first
well-known paintings — a series on Siberia, de-
picting the horrors of the mines and the suffer-
ings of the Polish exiles — were masterly in the
way they caught the stern reality but beautiful
heroism of the martyrs. They were not, how-
ever, the Malczewski milieu. His most famous
painting, finished five or six years ago, is en-
titled " Melancholy," and it is thoroughly char-
acteristic of the creative brain of the artist. In
subject, it is mystical and more — it is fantastical.
What Malczewski means by his fantasies, perhaps
no one except himself really knows. But the
technique and the colouring are wonderful. En-
tering the Austrian building at the Paris Exposi-
tion, this great painting, with its mad rush of
figures, struck the eye with a bewildering force.
Looking at it as a whole, the impression one re-

277

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

ceived was overwhelming, and even without
thoroughly understanding the thought, the spec-
tator felt that the painting was a masterpiece.

Siemiradzki was the acknowledged king of
theatre curtain painters. His curtains in the
theatres of Cracow and Lemberg satisfy every
demand of the artistic taste. The allegorical
groups are so well balanced, so subtly conceived,
and yet so plainly just the right combination.
His " Torches of Nero " and " Phryne " are
world-famous. And the chiaroscuro! There is
a scene in the Roman arbour in the gallery in
Warsaw which is worth a journey to Europe to
see. I entered the room on a cloudy afternoon,
and wondered how it was that the sun seemed to
have come out just enough to shine full on this
painting, mottling the foliage of the vine over the
arbour and checkering the stones with patches of
vivid, living sunlight and shade — the warm light
and cool shade of sunny Italy. But there was no
rift in the clouds. Then I looked for some con-
cealed electric lights, cunningly placed to illu-
minate the canvas. But it was the painter's
brush, unaided, which had suffused the scene and
made it glow as with life.

The names of Falat, Wyczolkowski, and
Mehoffer are in the lists of every art exhibition.
Joseph Krzesz is a constant exhibitor at Vienna,
Berlin, and St. Petersburg. His seven panels il-
lustrating the Lord's Prayer are famous. Falat

278

"DELIVER US FROM EVIL."

(One of the seven panels to illustrate the Lord's Prayer, as
painted by Josef M. Krzesz.)

A RACE OF ARTISTS BY BIRTH

is at present the head of the art academy in Cra-
cow, and is especially noted for his snow scenes.
His figures are delightful. Mehoffer was deco-
rated at the last Paris Exposition. Stachiewicz's
illustrations of peasant legends, a number of
which were exhibited at Paris in 1900, were pro-
nounced the best subjects for " half-tone " work
shown in many years. The crayon work of
Wlodzimierz Tetmajer has a fine, rich softness.
Tetmajer has made a specialty of peasant types.
He has studied the peasants for many years, and
must certainly have the courage of his convic-
tions, for he has married a peasant woman and
is the father of quite a family by her.

The modern spirit of symbolism run riot that
is known as " Impressionism " — in Polish, Seces-
sya — " Secession " — has found some favour
among Polish artists. Purple cows, green roses,
impossible mermaid ladies, with mysterious dra-
peries, which begin nowhere and apparently have
no end, and vegetation conventionalised and
etherealised, till it needs a map and a dictionary
to explain it — the superfluity of idea, or lack of
idea, is the same, whether one sees it in the studio
of the late Aubrey Beardsley, in the pages of
the Munich Jugend, or on the walls and windows
of the church of the Franciscans in Cracow.

The noble monument to Mickiewicz in Warsaw
is also a monument to the art of its creator, Cyp-
rian Godebski, the most eminent living Polish

279

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

sculptor, who is also well known in Paris. His
friends are fond of telling a story at his expense.
Some years ago the citizens of a French pro-
vincial town ordered from Godebski a monument
in honour of their good mayor. When it arrived
they were horrified to see the green tinge that,
alas for their unappreciative eyes! the sculptor
had spent so much labour in bestowing. So they
straightway polished it to a beautiful bronze
" shine."

The Polish Longfellow (Mickiewicz) has a
monument on the market place of Cracow. The
inscription on the base declares that the whole
nation gave it to Adam Mickiewicz. The monu-
ment to him in Warsaw was unveiled under most
dramatic circumstances, several years ago. Per-
mission had been received from the Tzar, but the
police were ordered to be present. By their
order every street was lined with Cossacks, ready
to shoot or cut down the multitudes who came to
see it unveiled, should any demonstration take
place. After a short speech, the ceremony was
performed in the presence of more than twenty
thousand people. Not a cry of any sort was
uttered; the whole assembly was hushed into
deathlike stillness. Mickiewicz, who was pott,
religious philosopher, militant democrat, critic,
historical professor of languages, and patriot —
and eminent in all — was one of the most learned
men of his time, yet he aspired only, he often

280

A RACE OF ARTISTS BY BIRTH

said, to write poetry that the peasants could
understand and love. His was a strange career.
Exiled from the University of Wilna, he joined
the Polish emigration to France, and afterward
became professor of Slavonic literature in Paris,
in the College de France.

The three great names in Polish poetry of the
past century are Mickiewicz, Krasinski, and
Slowacki, and each is associated with a wild,
weird, and mystic dramatic poem. Both the
" Dzyady " of Mickiewicz and the " Infernal
Comedy" of Krasinski are splendid allegories,
showing in strong, passionate lines, of occasion-
ally Ibsenesque morbidness, the role of martyr
which Poland has played through all her history.
Slowacki's " Kordjan," as presented on the stage
of Cracow, can be compared to nothing but
Goethe's " Faust " or Byron's " Manfred."
Slowacki, indeed, is said to have been inspired
by Byron, and to have modelled his " Mazeppa "
after the English poet's famous poem. After the
name of Mickiewicz, you will perhaps hear that
of Wincenty Pol most frequently mentioned by
the Poles, as that of a simple, popular poet.
Sienkiewicz declares that the Poles love Pol
better than any other of their poets.

Polish history has had its Macaulay and its
Scott in the century just passed. Joachim Lel-
lewel was the logical, philosophical, brilliant
stylist, Kraszewski, probably the greatest histor-

281

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

ical romance writer the Poles have produced — up
to the time of Sienkiewicz. Kraszewski is so ac-
curate that his works — there is nearly a library
full — are consulted as books of reference. It was
from one of his works — " The Hut behind the
Village" — that Paderewski chose the theme for
his opera " Manru." Kraszewski has been called
the Polish Scott.

The giant Sienkiewicz towers so above his con-
temporaries that to foreigners he is the sum of
Polish novelists. The Germans, however, are
enthusiastic over the classical romances of Alex-
ander Glowacki, who writes under the name of
Boleslaw Prus, and during the past few years a
number of writers have become famous, among
them the poet Adam Asnyk and the novelists
Wladyslaw Keymont and Eliza Orzeszko. This
novelist's works are now being translated into
English. Marya Rodziewicz is another writer
of popular fiction that is making her famous
abroad as well as at home. Stanislaw Przyby-
szewski is an essayist and dramatic w r riter of the
" Secession " school, as is also Stanislaw Wis-
pianski. Waclaw Gansiorowski, Marya Konop-
nicka and Stanislaw Zeromski are writers of
strong verse and fascinating fiction.

Americans will probably always feel that Mod-
jeska is really as much American as Pole. Her
colony venture in California, and the way she
has endeared herself to American audiences dur-

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A RACE OF ARTISTS BY BIRTH

ing all the years of her great dramatic career,
will always make her seem a real part of the
history of the American stage. But Modjeska is
patriotically Polish enough to satisfy the most
ardent. She may not act even to-day in Warsaw,
and not even her admitted primacy in her art —
a primacy which is not disputed and only shared
by Bernhardt and Duse — can make up for exclu-
sion from her beloved Warsaw.

Madame Helena Modjeska, whose maiden name
was Opid, was born in the city of Cracow, Aus-
trian Poland, and married at an early age an
actor named Modrzejewski, who soon afterward
died, leaving her with a baby son. This boy
(Ralph) came to the United States with his
mother, and is at present a well-known civil engi-
neer in Chicago. Later, Madame Modjeska (by
common consent the difficult Polish form of the
name has been abandoned for the simpler English
one) married her present husband, Charles Chla-
powski, a Polish journalist of wide reputation
for patriotism. He is known in this country as
Count Bozenta, from his ancestral estate.

Madame Modjeska's career has been a varied
and active one. Beginning with a " benefit " or-
ganised by amateurs for some unfortunate miners
in Poland, her progress was steady and sure.
After conquering her countrymen by her art,
and, unfortunately, giving offence to the Russian
government by her patriotic attitude, she and

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POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

her husband, in 1876, left Warsaw for the United
States.

Modjeska's intention was to establish, near Los
Angeles, a Utopian colony in which they and
their Polish compatriots in the United States
might enjoy the blessings of liberty. Henryk
Sienkiewicz was with Modjeska in this enterprise,
and his book " Letters from America " is full of
his impressions and experiences of this experi-
ment. The Arcadian idyl was not a success, and,
with almost all her resources exhausted, Mod-
jeska conceived the bold idea of going to San
Francisco to study English for the American
stage. This was in 1877. By diligent applica-
tion she so soon mastered the English language
that in six months she was able to perform in-
telligibly before American audiences.

In 1880, desiring to secure an English indorse-
ment of her American success, Modjeska went to
London, and soon achieved triumph at the Court
Theatre, in the British capital. Two years later
she returned to the United States, where she has
since lived. Once every two years she has been
accustomed to journey to her native country to
play in the theatres of Cracow, Austrian Poland ;
Posen, German Poland, and (until forbidden)
Warsaw, Russian Poland. Her art, character-
ised as it has ever been by tragic power, purity
of aim, grace and delicacy, has placed her in the
same class with Rachel and Ristori; but beyond

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A RACE OF ARTISTS BY BIRTH

her art is her fine, interesting personality, and
the great capacity for work which has enabled
her to win the highest triumph in a tongue not
her own.

Madame Modjeska lives on a fine country
estate known as Arden, near Los Angeles, in Cali-
fornia, with Mexican rough riders and cowboys
for her neighbours. There she enjoys complete
freedom and quietude, and, in the midst of her
great library, she is preparing her autobiography.
Her husband is deeply interested in agricultural
matters, and is a successful farmer, according
to the most exacting American standards

The stage in Warsaw and Cracow is remark-
able for its native dramatic power. These cities
are the schools in which future Modjeskas are
being trained. The theatres at Cracow and Lem-
berg are almost as well equipped with strong,
original dramatic talent as that of Warsaw, and
the fire and artistic insight, always characteristic
of these stages, is also characteristic of the art-
loving, high-strung people that supports them
so loyally.

The Poles are by nature's gift an artistic peo-
ple, and it is a significant fact that they are
to-day achieving artistic triumphs over the peo-
ples that conquered them by brute force and now
hold them down only by sheer weight of the
gunstock. German and Russian critics are en-
thusiastic in praise of Polish musicians. Despite

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V

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

the fact that the plots of many of Sienkiewicz's
novels revolve around a humiliation of Germans
by Poles, and while the imperial German gov-
ernment is imprisoning Polish children for refus-
ing to say their catechism in German, the author
of the Trilogy is even a greater favourite in Ger-
many than he is in Russia, where he is read by
more people than Tolstoi himself. It is a nobler
conquest than that of the sword.

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XVII
THE, GEOGRAPHER OP THE HEAVENS

NOT only in mnsic, art, and literature has
Poland produced great men. One of her
scientists ranks with Galileo and New-
ton.

It is rarely given to one man to alter the entire
view of the world for all mankind, to make the
race face in a new direction. But this honour
belongs to Nicholas Copernicus. Before he an-
nounced his discoveries, every one held to the
Ptolemaic theory that the earth was the centre
of the universe. It was a tremendously complex
and cumbrous system, and made man consider
himself more highly than he ought.

The age was one of discovery. While the
young student of astronomy was pouring over his
books in Cracow, Columbus and the other ven-
turesome Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch navi-
gators were spanning the oceans and continents
of the earth. Galileo had begun to shake the
faith of mankind in the old-established doctrine
that " the sun do move." Copernicus elaborated
the Galilean thesis to a system, and man, for the

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POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

first time, began to realise that he was not, as
he had fondly believed, the centre around which
the universe revolved, but merely "a speck of
cosmic dust." The Copernican method, more
than the mere discovery, made man more humble
and modest The old way of propounding a
theory and making the facts fit it, received its
death-blow from the labours of the Polish astron-
omer. He began the modern method of searching
for a theory that would fit the facts. This had
an almost incalculable influence on the thought
of the world. Man no longer believed that the
universe was created solely for his benefit. The
world came out of its scholastic, college-boy
stage and learned to regard itself with the sense
of humility that comes to every young man
when he goes out among his fellows and realises
that he knows so little. Man had found himself,
and modern progress became possible.

It is a tribute to Poland as well as to the man
himself that Prussia should have claimed Coper-
nicus as one of her sons. It is true that Thorn,
where he was born and where he lived for many
years, became Prussian after the first partition
of Poland. The astronomer, however, wrote
" Polonos " after his name long before Prussia
had any existence except as a fief of the Polish
crown.

A fair strain of Jewish blood ran in the veins
of the Koppernigs, but, for generations before

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THE GEOGRAPHER OF THE HEAVENS

the birth of Nicholas, the family was Polish and
Christian. The future astronomer was born in
the quaint old town of Thorn, February 19, 1473.
It was the ambition of his mother that he should
be a preacher, like her own brother, the eloquent
bishop. The father, however, opposed this idea,
intending to make his son a man of business.
The parental disagreement resulted, while the
young Nicholas was a student at the University
of Cracow, in his latinising his name, and turn-
ing to medicine as a profession. Upon receiving
license to practice, however, he at once discarded
medicine for his absorbing delight, mathematics.
At twenty-one he was teaching mathematics in
the University. He soon began to show his
grasp of the higher conceptions by developing
a system that has since become trigonometry.
At this period of his life he also invented a quad-
rant with which to measure the height of trees,
steeples, or mountains. His fame spread abroad,
and he was invited to lecture at Bologna. There
he met the famous astronomer, Novarra. The
Italian scientist believed and taught the old
Ptolemaic theory of astronomy. Copernicus
watched the heavens with him, but soon decided
that mathematics, not theology, was the basis of
the movements in the heavens.

From Bologna he went to Padua and thence to
Rome, all the while slowly elaborating and ex-
pounding his theory of stellar and planetary

289

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

movement. But the old theory was part of the
teaching of the Church. And Copernicus was a
good Catholic. He soon perceived that alchemy,
astrology, even orthodoxy itself, were being ar-
raigned at the bar of intellect by his ideas. This
was heresy. But, he asked, is it sinful to attempt
to understand God's works? " No. To know the
mighty works of God; to comprehend His wis-
dom and majesty and power; to appreciate, in
degree, the wonderful working of His laws,
surely all this must be a pleasing and acceptable
mode of worship to the Most High, to whom ig-
norance cannot be more grateful than knowl-
edge."

Yet Copernicus loved the Church, and, in his
fear lest he interfere with the work of the clergy,
he ceased lecturing. Then, with the benediction
of the Pope, he took to preaching himself. After-
ward he practised medicine gratis for the poor.
He instructed the people in the science of sani-
tation. He devised a system of sewerage and
utilised the belfry of his church as a water-tower,
all to aid his fellow-townsmen and to convince
them that he wished them well. He helped King
Zygmunt, of Poland, to establish a scientific,
honest system of coinage, and then wrote a book
on the coining of money which is valuable even
to-day.

Year by year he worked at his great problem
of the earth, the sun, and the stars. In the upper

290

THE GEOGRAPHER OF THE HEAVENS

floor of the barn, back of the old dilapidated
farmhouse where he lived for forty years, he cut
holes in the roof, and also in the sides of the
building through which he watched the move-
ments of the stars. He lived in practical isola-
tion and exile. The Church had forbidden him
to speak in public except upon themes that the
Holy Fathers in their wisdom had authorised.
No one dared invite him to speak, none could
read his writings or hold converse with him, ex-
cept on strictly church matters. But he cared
not

"The stars do me honour," he said. "I am
forbidden to converse with great men, but God
has ordered for me a procession of the stars."
Ostracism and exile gave him the opportunity he
needed, for digesting all that had been written
on astronomy and for testing, very laboriously
with his rude instruments, every one of the hy-
potheses of his brain.

And so the years passed. The vigorous, ag-
gressive man had become old, feeble, bowed,
and almost blind from constantly watching the
stars and from writing at night. At last his
great book, "The Revolution of the Heavenly
Bodies," written in Latin, was completed. It
had been nearly forty years in the making. For
twenty-seven of these, as he himself tells us, not
a single day or night passed without his having
added something to it. What should he do with

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POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

these pages of truth that he had written five
times?

The Censor at Rome, he knew, would not per-
mit the book to be published. Did it not contra-
dict and refute all that the priests had taught of
astronomy? To bring it out in his own town
without ecclesiastical authority would be equally
dangerous. So the great soul sent the manu-
script, with a bag of gold to pay the cost of pub-
lication, to Nuremberg, the free city, of free
science, free art, and free speech. But he was
still full of tender reverence for Mother Church.
So he wrote a preface, dedicating the volume to
His Holiness Pope Paul.

Months passed, months of weary waiting.
Would they burn the book? The old man,
stricken with fever, was within a few days of his
death, when a messenger arrived from Nurem-
berg. It was May 23, 1543. He bought a printed
copy of the book. With the sight of the blessed
volume before him the great soul passed.

In the old Jagiellonian Library of Cracow, one
summer day, in the year of Grace 1900, the at-
tendant pointed out a small brass instrument, of
globe, rings, and circles, curiously worked with
astronomical symbols long since out of date. It
was the original planisphere of the great cosmog-
rapher. Outside, in the picturesque stone court-
yard, the floral tributes of its dedication still
unfaded, stood the bronze statue of Nicholas

292

THE GEOGRAPHER OF THE HEAVENS

Copernicus, holding in his hand a fac-simile of
this brass instrument. The sun seemed to have
special interest in this man as its rays lovingly
fell on him. He had re-established its supremacy
in the universe.

293

XVIII
POLISH COUNTRY LIFE AND CUSTOMS

FOR the delight of existence near to Na-
ture's heart and the pleasures of a social
intercourse, natural, simple, unaffected,
yet marked by a sympathetic responsiveness, and
a refined subtility of intellectual interchange,
one should go to the Poles and enjoy their social
and home life. Whole-hearted, sympathetic hos-
pitality and refinement is characteristic of the
educated Poles at all times and in all places, but
while in the cities it is apt to be a bit vitiated by
the artificialities inevitable to urban wealth and
" over-ripeness," in the country districts, among
the families of the obywatel, or landed aristoc-
racy, it is generally healthy, unaffected, and in-
spiring.

The Poles have always been an agrarian people.
They love their mother soil passionately, and
cleave to it — with a tenacity that has caused un-
told woe to the Prussian government, when it
wants to buy up Polish estates. In all its his-
tory only one other pursuit has claimed equal
attention and devotion from the Pole, and that is

294

POLISH COUNTRY LIFE AND CUSTOMS

war. As farmers and fighters, this people has
excelled for over a thousand years.

The Polish estate is generally very large, as
estates go. But it varies in size. In the vicin-
ity of the cities the proprietor may boast of fifty
acres. Count Zamoyski, the greatest Polish land-
owner, has 400,000 acres. The estate is usually
almost self-supporting, an empire in itself, and
frequently governed as autocratically. The soil
supports the manor family in almost all its
wants. Grain, fruit and vegetables, meat (fish
and fowl) and liquors, for the table, wool and
leather for the body — in Ruthenia one owner
boasted to me his place produced everything he
used, except pepper, salt, and oyster crackers.
Woodland, meadow, tilled field, by the hundreds
of acres, fish ponds, hundreds of head of cattle,
horses, pigs, poultry, from fifteen to three hun-
dred servants, sometimes forming a village of
their own — the management of a Polish estate is
a task worthy of a man's full powers.

Hospitality in Poland is hearty and sincere.
When you visit a Polish family you know at
once that you have a place with them. They en-
joy your enjoyment so much that you feel you
really ought to have a good time if for no other
reason than to please them. The Pole, indeed,
has a good many qualities in common with the
Celt. Added to his own time-honoured magnifi-
cence and munificence as a dispenser, he has the

295

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

urbanity and delightful manners of the French-
man, and the warm-hearted, winning ways of the
Irishman. The Pole and the Irishman have
many traits in common — including the unruli-
ness.

Somehow, the Poles have always impressed me
as being more alive than the neighbouring peo-
ples; indeed, than any other European people.
Life, strong, bounding physical life, is, and al-
ways has been, characteristic of them. What a
laughable failure little Pan Michael made of
his temporary immuring in a monastery! The
memento mori seemed ridiculous, coming from
the lips that had taken in so much of the good
things of physical life, so much red liquor, so
many dishes of hot, generous viands. Fancy Zag-
loba as a monk ! It is impossible. All through
that marvellous picture gallery of Sienkiewicz
how much life there is — abounding life, fulness
and power and colour ! The Pole was always a
fighter, a big man. It is a big race to-day, and
likes good living, good eating. Nature was good
to the Pole physically. She made him big and
hearty, and to-day he is fond of a good cuisine,
and knows how to have it.

The typical Polish dtoSr, or country house,
is generally situated on a hillock above the peas-
ant village which nestles at its feet. It is often
hidden in a mass of trees, many of them centuries
old. After entering the "brama," or gateway,

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POLISH COUNTRY LIFE AND CUSTOMS

which is likely to be a ponderous affair, the visi-
tor approaches the manor by a long driveway
bordered with trees, in most cases lindens, which,
in Poland, attain a great height and size, and are
the owner's special pride. At the end of the
driveway, among the trees, is seen a low, ram-
bling, red-tiled dwelling of one story, with its
white stucco walls glistening in the sunlight.
The porch is large and its roof is supported by
Doric columns, and there are benches on either
side. In the typical manor this porch leads into
an ante-room decorated with the hunting trophies
of the master. Then, to the right, is the office in
which he receives his business callers — the factor
of the estate who comes to report on the day's
work, the peasant from the village to ask a fa-
vour, the Jew to bargain for the gentleman's
grain. The walls of the office are generally deco-
rated with fragrant wreaths from the harvest
fields.

The dining-room and the parlour are much like
those in any other country. In the bedroom,
however, there is generally an altar to St. Mary.
Every Saturday and during the whole month of
May there is a light burning on this altar, and
also offerings of fresh flowers. The tiled stoves,
most elaborate affairs, frequently wrought on
artistic patterns, reach almost to the ceiling, for
the rooms are low, and give a distinct character
to them. The kitchen stove is a large plaster

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POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

affair, with a cavernous oven. This is heated by
filling the interior with burning wood and then
raking out the embers, after which the bread is
pushed in with a long-handled wooden ladle. The
result of this rather primitive method is excel-
lent, especially the rye bread.

The house is usually surrounded by a large
garden, and there is generally a pond, which sup-
plies fish to the manor house, and an old orchard,
from which is derived a comfortable yearly in-
come. Then, no typical estate is without a nest
of storks. This bird is treated almost reverently
in Poland, and permitted to go where he will
without interference. His coming is awaited
longingly, as he is a harbinger of spring.

The horses and carriages and waggons are the
dwtfr's special pride. They are the means of
communication with the rest of the world. Two,
three, five, fifteen miles from town, the estate
people, busy all summer, depend on the winter
season for their social intercourse. It is then
that they pay most of the calls of the year and
relax from their toil. The carnival week, before
the soberness of Lent, is the great season for
gaiety and amusement. The estate drives into
town occasionally for its balls and parties, but
usually contents itself with giving " affairs " and
attending them among its immediate neighbours
— which may involve a two hours' drive. Hunt-
ing parties are a favourite amusement These

298

POLISH COUNTRY LIFE AND CUSTOMS

are arranged, in turn, by the proprietors of the
different estates. Early in the morning the
hunters collect at the home of their host, where
the hunting breakfast, consisting of smoked meats
of different kinds, sausage, cheese, wines and
beer, awaits them. They start off in peasant
waggons, or, if there is snow, in sleighs, taking
with them the famous bigos, which is reheated
for them over a bonfire by the peasant boys.
These boys also chase the game within range of
the hunters, who are looking for sport only, as
it is the custom to leave all the game at the home
of the host.

The innate love of the picturesque and poetic,
which is so characteristic of the race, comes out
in the great wealth of customs and traditions
among the Poles. There are innumerable holi-
days, and with each is associated some poetic
legend or odd custom originating in a pictur-
esque conception of the meaning of some relig-
ious or social observances. Christmas and Easter
are the great days of the year, and each is full
of religious significance.

The approach of Christmas is always heralded
a few weeks beforehand by the frequent visits of
the members of the brotherhood of monks, who
bring small packages of wafers made of flour and
water, blessed by the priest, and on which are
stamped symbolic religious figures. No Polish
family, at home or abroad, is without these

299

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

oplatki, which play such an important r6le in the
Christmas-Eve festivities. The Poles send these
wafers in letters to all relatives and friends, as
Christmas cards are sent in other countries.

Christmas-Eve feast is, perhaps, the greatest
occasion of the year, and preparations are made
for it with much solemnity. Before the cloth is
laid the table is covered with a layer of hay or
straw, and a sheaf of the straw stands in a cor-
ner. Years ago, straw was also spread on the
floor — all this symbolic of Christ's lowly birth.

The menu of the feast is a most elaborate af-
fair, although not so much so as formerly. As
the day is a fast day, fish forms the main feature
of the bill, which should consist of thirteen
courses. First, there are soups: broth of al-
mond, fish soup, or barszcz. The last is a sour
soup of fermented beet juice, very popular. Then
comes the fish, often beginning with an enormous
pike, served in a variety of ways with fifty differ-
ent kinds of sauce. Then comes tench, with cab-
bages and mushrooms. Then more carp, and
kutia, a Lithuanian national dish, consisting of
husked oats, served with honey and poppy seeds.
After the fish come conserved fruits, and then
delicious little pirogi, a little cake or dumpling
that looks like a tiny loaf of rye bread, stuffed
with layers of almond paste, poppy seeds, meal or
cheese. Besides, there are numerous other small
cakes and preserved fruits. In the proportion

300

POLISH COUNTRY LIFE AND CUSTOMS

that a thirteen-course dinner exceeds an ordinary
repast, by so much does the drink list expand.
If you accept all the liquors that a Pole offers,
you will have to be a very strong man not to suc-
cumb. They have all the liquors known to the
Anglo-Saxon palate and many others, which
should be approached with caution.

Christmas Eve belongs to the family exclu-
sively. Rarely are there any guests present, but
all the relatives gather from far and near at the
home of the eldest member, sometimes travel-
ling several days to reach their destination.

When the first star appears the entire family,
beginning with the eldest member, breaks the
wafer, each with the other, at the same time ex-
changing best wishes. The master and mistress
then go to the servants' quarters to divide the
wafer there. They wish good husbands to the
bonny peasant girls, and excellent housewives to
the men folk. The servants have the rest of the
evening to themselves, and they spend it singing
characteristic Christmas carols, known as " Ko-
lendy." Sometimes the peasants will come to
gather the hay and straw from under the cloth
and distribute it among the cattle, as there is a
popular belief that this straw possesses a charm
against evil. It is also used to tie up fruit trees,
which are then supposed to yield plentifully the
following season. Returning from " Pasterka,"
the midnight mass, it is another custom to accost

801

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

the first passer-by and ask his or her name, which
is supposed to be the name of the questioner's
future husband or wife.

On Christmas morning, early, the peasants
dress themselves up to represent Herod and other
Biblical characters, as well as many different
birds and animals, and go from house to house,
the leader carrying an immense glittering star,
to represent the Star of Bethlehem. They sing
Christmas carols beneath the windows of every
hut and manor house, receiving either money or
a portion of the Christmas feast. This custom
is known as Gwiazda, the star.

The children wait for the observance of one
custom with breathless impatience. This is the
Jaselki — the manger — the observance of which
lasts during the whole week between Christmas
and New Year's. It is really a travelling series
of scenes from the life of Christ, and also from
the lives of the modern peasants. These Jaselki
are gorgeous affairs, somewhat on the model of
the English Punch and Judy show. They are
really small travelling theatres, ablaze with can-
dles and tinsel, and so bulky that it frequently
requires three or four strong men to manipulate
one of them. During the performance all the
characteristic melodies or folksongs are sung,
such as the Krakowiak, the Mazur, and others.
The market-place of Cracow, especially at night,
is a very pretty spectacle, its sidewalks all lined

802

POLISH COUNTRY LIFE AND CUSTOMS

with these glittering Jaselki, each of which tries
to outshine the other in splendour. The proprie-
tors generally reap a goodly harvest, as these
shows are very popular with the children, and
have really taken a strong hold, when it is re-
membered that the Christmas tree was not intro-
duced into Poland until the beginning of the
last century. The making of presents on Christ-
mas is not so general in Poland. Gifts are re-
served for " name " days.

Carnival begins after New Year's, and it is as
great a season for gaiety among the Poles as
with the Italians and French. All the country
estates and the smaller towns flock to the larger
cities, and the journey becomes a sort of annual
pilgrimage for pleasure, and not at all a pen-
ance. Mothers, with marriageable daughters,
and an army of young men in search of wives,
form the larger part of these pilgrims, and one
of the most certain outcomes of each carnival is
the large number of betrothals that supply
the gossip to enliven the monotony of Lent. Sev-
eral generations ago the country people of a few
estates would gather together at Carnival time,
and, taking with them their servants and
trunks, would fall upon their neighbours with-
out invitation, as a sort of surprise party. They
would remain many days at a time, dancing and
feasting, until they had emptied the pantry and
the cellar. Then, taking their host and his fam-

803

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

ily with them, they would go to the next estate,
the company constantly increasing in numbers,
until every estate had been visited in turn. By
this time the Carnival had come to an end, and
every family returned to its respective home.
Since this was an accepted custom, no one was
caught unawares, and there was always an abun-
dance of good things to offer the welcome guests.

At Carnival the Poles seem to go dance mad.
A Polish gentleman of Cracow observed to me,
" We used to begin early in the evening, and
dance till five o'clock in the morning. Then
probably the musicians could play no longer, and
we would all pretend to go. After most of us
were ready to leave, it generally happened that
some one would strike up a mazurka, and we
would begin all over again, sometimes dancing
till twelve noon, when we usually stopped, though
not always willingly."

On the last day of Carnival there are gener-
ally masquerades given, which come to an ab-
rupt end as the bells toll midnight. Even to this
day, in Cracow, a huge fish, made of tin or card-
board, is lowered into the ballroom as the clock
strikes twelve, as a sign that Lent has com-
menced, and the herring, milk, and eggs passed
round in country homes have the same signifi-
cance.

Matka Boska Gromniczna, or Candlemas Day,
occurs early in February, and is one of the most

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POLISH COUNTRY LIFE AND CUSTOMS

ceremonious days of the year in the Polish
Catholic Church. On that day the candles,
which are symbolic of purity, are blessed. It is
a curious sight to see the kneeling masses on the
stone floor holding immense lighted candles in
their hands, and it is supposed to be a bad omen
if, during the procession that follows, one of the
candles goes out without apparent cause. The
candles are taken home and lighted during storms
and on occasions that could, in any way, bring
disaster.

Holy Week is full of symbolism. In some
parts of Galicia, on Holy Thursday, the boys,
dressed up as soldiers, make a dummy figure, en-
veloped in rags, to represent Judas. This figure
they take to the cemetery, where they beat it
with wooden swords, amid the laughter and deri-
sion of the onlookers. Judas is taken in a wheel-
barrow to the nearest pond, where he is drowned,
or, at nightfall, he is tied to a stake and burned.

Easter is a greater holiday than Christmas
with the Poles, and it is also a day on which
all the family gather together. Preparations for
it are begun weeks beforehand. The table is set
on Saturday morning, the setting being quite an
event, in which the whole household take part.
As there is no telling how many guests will be
present, the plates, knives, and forks are placed
on a sideboard and taken as they are needed.
The centre table, as well as long, narrow tables

305

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

at the side, are covered with snowy cloths, some-
times decorated with a border of evergreen, which
has been artistically sewed on. In the centre, on
a pedestal, sometimes made with moss, with col-
oured eggs and fruit at the base, is the symbolic
lamb, made of butter or sugar. The rest of the
table is laid out with whole hams, veal and mut-
ton, etc., and cakes of all descriptions, the for-
mer prettily decorated with evergreen and box-
wood. A small sucking pig, holding a coloured
egg in its mouth, always occupies a place of hon-
our. The food is all blessed by the priest, who
also, at this time, blesses the water to be used in
sprinkling the huts. No Polish peasant would
live in a house that had not been blessed by the
priest, as such a dwelling, he believes, must cer-
tainly be haunted by ghosts, if not by the devil
himself. When a factory is built the proprietor
could get no workmen unless the building had
been blessed. Even the theatres are blessed.

Another pretty custom is that of the gentle-
man inviting to the house a few of the more dig-
nified peasants, with whom he eats the symbolic
egg. This custom goes a long way toward insur-
ing good feelings between the manor house and
the peasant hut.

The Easter dinner, which is begun by dividing
the egg and exchanging good wishes, is the only
regular meal of the day. Other meals are eaten
where and when one chooses. The servants have

306

POLISH COUNTRY LIFE AND CUSTOMS

no duties, and the fires in the kitchen are al-
lowed to die out. On Easter Monday the visit-
ing begins, and the house is filled with guests
from morning till night. The meals are served
in the same manner as on Easter Day, so that
practically the eating continues all day.

An extraordinary custom, known as Smigus,
is observed on Easter Monday, to the huge en-
joyment of the peasants. They douse one another
with pails of water. The men hide behind bushes
and trees, waiting for the peasant girls to draw
water. Catching them unawares, they give the
girls a thorough drenching. Of course, the poor
Jew suffers from this. He is up early, as usual,
intent on business, to be greeted with the con-
tents of a bucket of dishwater from the top of
some roof. Among the landed proprietors this
custom takes a more genteel form, the young gen-
tlemen spraying the ladies with cologne.

Renkawka (the word means the sleeve) comes
as a sort of clear-up after Easter, and the
custom has an historical explanation. The mound
of Krakus was erected by the people, who brought
the earth in their wide, old-fashioned sleeves, in
token of homage to the founder of their city,
Cracow. This is the holiday of the servants and
the peasants, who dress up in their finest and
flock to the Krakus mound, where, according to
the old Polish custom, the remains of the Easter
feast were distributed to the poor. To-day, the

307

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

observance of the custom becomes a celebration
of public games, the proceeds of which are de-
voted to amusements and benefits for the people.

From time immemorial the Poles have greeted
the spring with open arms. Its advent is cele-
brated in a holiday season known as Zielone
Swiantki (Green Holiday). Every palace,
house, and hut is decorated with " green things,"
and the churches look like a beautiful grove.
The peasants give their huts a new coat of white-
wash, which makes the green decorations partic-
ularly effective.

Among the many picturesque customs of har-
vest time none is, perhaps, so beautiful as that
of the annual visit of the master and mistress to
the fields. They are immediately waylaid by the
peasants, who tie their hands with bands of
straw, the lady and gentleman only regaining
their liberty after paying a fine. If the fields are
near the road, any one who passes can be treated
in the same manner, and the peasants reap quite
a little harvest of money. Swiento Matki Boski
Zielonej (Feast of the Divine Mother of the
Herbs) is a holiday in August. For a few days
before this, bevies of peasant girls may be seen
gathering flowers and herbs of all kinds. These
are made into bouquets, often of intricate design,
with fruit and nuts as decorations, and are taken
to church to be blessed. These blessed herbs are
supposed to ward off diseases from the cattle.

S08

POLISH COUNTRY LIFE AND CUSTOMS

It is quite a picturesque sight, this mass of kneel-
ing peasant women, each with her immense
bouquet.

Dzien Zaduszny is All Souls' Day, on which
there is a pilgrimage to all the cemeteries.
The graves are decorated lavishly with flowers
and wreaths, and in the night lit up with candles
and lamps of different colours — a weird and pic-
turesque sight. In Lithuania the peasants be-
lieve that at midnight the souls leave their
graves and return to their former homes. So
food and drink are placed on window-sill and
thresholds, that they need not go away hungry.
The disappearance of the food only strengthens
the belief of the peasants in the midnight visita-
tion. Sometimes food is also placed on the
graves. The smack of paganism in this, how-
ever, has caused it to be forbidden by the Church.

The musical culture of the Poles and their pas-
sionate fondness for that art is one of the finest
facts of their social life. It is a musical appre-
ciation that is inbred and inherited from na-
ture's original gift to the race, refined and devel-
oped by generations of practice.

In an intellectual way, the Poles are demo-
crats. The most gifted author or the most fa-
mous artist will " drop in " for an evening's call,
and chat, without ostentation or heralding, ex-
pecting to be received as simply as though he
were the family doctor.

809

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

The patriarchal form of government, however,
still survives in the Slavonic family. The chil-
dren are brought up to most respectful, filial
conduct, and it is delightful to see their rever-
ence for their elders, a reverence that is genu-
ine and inbred. No young person would dream
of occupying a sofa or an easy chair while there
are older people in the room, no matter how many
other vacant chairs there might be. The boy and
girl salute their parents by kissing, not on the
mouth, but on the hand, the shoulder, the coat-
sleeve.

In the matter of social customs the Poles are
exceedingly conservative. The old prejudice
against trade and business is, indeed, dying out,
under pressure of modern conditions, but trades-
men and mechanics are still rated as lower in
the social scale than the landed proprietor, even
though the latter may be much poorer and be
compelled to work much harder. Tradition
seems to have a stronger hold in Galicia than in
the other sections of the former commonwealth.
The stamp of a new order is visible over all the
kingdom (Russia), and German progress will
not let Posen lag behind. But in Galicia, old
ideas, old customs, old forms, old titles, stili
hold.

It is very difficult for a non-Pole to understand
the social caste system in Poland. There are
really five orders, the aristocracy, the titled no-

310

POLISH COUNTRY LIFE AND CUSTOMS

bility, the landed proprietors (or szlachta), the
bourgeoisie, and the peasants. The Jews, of
course, form still another and wholly distinct
class. The aristocracy consists, it would seem,
of about a dozen families, whose names have
been famous through generations. They are in-
tensely conservative in social matters, and rec-
ognition by them, or connection, even distant,
with them, is the hall-mark of social standing.
The family genealogical tree and coat of arms
are a most complicated matter, and quite beyond
a stranger's comprehension. The Pole can tell
his family history back to a little after the time
of the flood. He also knows the history of all his
neighbours, and when a stranger arrives in town
he soon places him, after consulting the book of
heraldry. The Polish aristocrat, in short, is as
proud and stately as the Spanish grandee.

The only profession fit for a gentleman, ac-
cording to the idea quite generally prevalent
in Galicia, is that of obywatelstwo — that is,
gentleman farmer — whose ideas and standing are
somewhat similar to those of our old Southern
squires before the war. This is the szlachta, or
landed nobility, which still forms a small part of
the nation. This class looks down on trade such
as that on which the bourgeoisie of the towns is
beginning to thrive. But the old prejudice is fast
dying out, and now there are even hrabias (counts
or barons) who own and operate large dairies.

six

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

Perhaps, however, this is also considered a part
of gentleman farming.

The bourgeoisie, or town-folk, are generally
the tradespeople. This class is composed of a
large proportion of foreigners, Germans particu-
larly (even in Russia), Poles of Teutonic or Rus-
sian extraction, and an increasing number of
Poles, pure Poles, constantly recruited from the
peasantry, and occasionally from the aristocracy.
The peasants, either through discontent with
their own hard lot, or drawn by the allurements
of city life, are deserting their fields and going
into the centres of population, where they often
enter trade and become prosperous. Service in
the army is likely to give the peasant lad a dis-
taste for the monotonous, rather animal life of
his parent. And so the transformation of the
people from a nation of almost exclusive agricul-
turists into one of manufacturers goes on slowly,
but none the less surely.

S12

XIX
POLAND'S MODEKN INTERPRETER

A RARE honour it certainly is for any one
man to be able to introduce his country
and countrymen to the world; to recall to
the memory of mankind an oppressed and almost
forgotten people, and to so revivify its past that
the whole civilised world pauses to look and lis-
ten as though a new protagonist had stepped
upon the stage of the century. Such is, indeed,
a rare honour, but it belongs to Henryk Sien-
kiewicz, incomparably the greatest prophet of
Polish nationality.

Sienkiewicz has introduced his countrymen to
the American people. It is not as " the author
of l Quo Vadis? ' " that his name will be longest
and best remembered, although such is the popu-
lar way (at least in this country) of referring to
him. It is as the man who made his country
known to the world, as the author of the Trilogy
of Polish novels, that he claims the affection and
homage of his countrymen.

To the American, the Englishman, the Ger-
man, Henryk Sienkiewicz is a masterly weaver
of fascinating, powerful, realistic romances. To

818

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

the Pole he is all this, and much more. He is his
country's first adequate interpreter to the world,
and his works are the mirror in which " Sarma-
tia sees her strenuous, beautiful self." To an
audience larger, more widely distributed, and
more generally intelligent than that of any other
living author — with the possible exception of
Tolstoi — he says : " Gentlemen, permit me to pre-
sent Poland. This is not mere story-telling, lit-
erary portraiture, romance-building. This is a
great people; Poland, with all her magnificent
virtues, all her lamentable shortcomings. Per-
mit me, ladies and gentlemen, to present to you
Poland."

All his historical novels on Poland, but partic-
ularly the incomparable Trilogy, present, in bold,
clear-cut, beautiful lines, that unfortunate land
and people that is to-day without a place on
the map of nations. In the Trilogy the novelist
has gathered up all the threads of the national
life and character of his countrymen and woven
them deftly into one shining cord : the series of
three realistic, historical romances, " With Fire
and Sword," " The Deluge," and " Pan Michael."

A man in the prime of life, and in the pleni-
tude of his powers, hearty, cordial, and courte-
ous, slightly reserved at times, always modest
and unassuming; a man of the middle height,
with a kindly, honest face and quiet manners,
with now and then the almost hunted look of one

S14

HENRYK SIENKIEWICZ, POLAND'S MODERN
INTERPRETER.

(From the painting by Kazimierz Pochwalski.)

POLAND'S MODERN INTERPRETER

who fears the " lioniser " — such is, in brief, the
impression made by Henryk Sienkiewicz. His is
a most winning personality, with simple, natural
dignity, and an utter lack of pose.

The novelist had just returned from a walk
with his daughter when I presented myself at
his cottage at Zakopane in the Carpathian Moun-
tains. His naturally olive complexion was
flushed with the exercise, and he flourished a
ciupaga (or hatchet-headed mountain-stick)
gleefully as he stepped buoyantly into the room.

Delightful and unique is this Zakopailski or
Carpathian style of building and carving. It
looks like a clever amalgamation of the Norwe-
gian and Swiss, but yet with a new stamp, cast
in a new mould, peculiarly its own. The wood-
carving of these gdrale, or peasant mountaineers,
is really wonderful. From the massive newel-
post at the foot of the stairs to the delicate fili-
gree leaf-tracery of the paper-knife on Mr. Sien-
kiewicz's desk, it is all done by hand, and — Oh,
rare temperance and restraint! — left quite un-
smirched by the vandal, vulgar paint. Fresh,
clean, white wood, wrought into beautiful, artis-
tic forms, with the ozone and tang of the forest
still clinging to it, makes grateful, appropriate
surroundings for a study. A few books and a
couple of fur rugs — the spoil of the mountains —
complete the den of the novelist.

A most modest man is this world-famous au-
815

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

thor. You cannot extract personalities, except
the meagerest, from him by any means known to
the diplomat's art or the journalist's craft. " I
toiled at short stories until I could write a good
one before I attempted longer productions."
This is the terse way he sums up his early liter-
ary struggles. A search among the " biography
pigeon-holes" of certain Warsaw newspapers
supplies the information that, like most eminent
literary men, his beginnings were arduous and
discouraging. From his mother, Stefania Cie-
ciszewska, who was a poetess of culture, he in-
herited a taste for literature. He wrote a series
of critical articles in 1869, in his 25th year, but
they attracted no attention. The next year he
tried a novel, but that met a fate strangely ap-
propriate to its title — " In Vain." No one cred-
ited him with talent, and he lost heart. In the
year of our Centennial he came to this country
and joined Madame Modjeska's famous colony
of expatriated Poles in California. Then came
his sketches of travel in America. " I know the
great West of America as a traveller only," he
said. Here I fancied I could detect the faintest
apologetic touch to the voice. Perhaps the nov-
elist has had an inkling of the sensitiveness of
Americans to the opinions of distinguished for-
eigners, like Dickens and himself, who have
seemed hasty in their generalisations of Amer-
ica "as seen from a car window." Mr. Sien-

816

POLAND'S MODERN INTERPRETER

kiewicz's reference to pigs in the streets of New
York somehow lingers unpleasantly in the
memory.

"How do I write a novel?" He laughed.
" What a question that is, and how can I possi-
bly answer it? I prepare to write a novel by
reading every book and document referring to it
in all languages that I can lay hold of. Then I
let it all soak for a while." (The novelist did
not use the word " soak," but explained more in
detail that he meant that process.) "Then I
write. That is all. l Quo Vadis? ' was compara-
tively easy. There was a great wealth of books
and documents to draw from. Tacitus was a
gold-mine. It took about eighteen months to
complete ' Quo Vadis? ' which was my first seri-
ous effort in the classical field. The Trilogy was
more difficult, requiring very careful research,
and the study of old and generally obscure
authorities."

An amusing incident is told in connection with
the serial publication of " Quo Vadis? " in a Po-
lish journal. When the installment describing
the captivity of Lygia appeared, a deputation of
sensitive young girls called upon the author —
at least so the story runs — to beg him not to let
his heroine die in prison. " It is a simple matter,
this letting her escape," naively declared one of
these young ladies. " Lygia has only to write a
letter to her fiance^ and he will see to it." Sien-

317

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

kiewicz smiled and requested his fair petitioner
to compose such a letter to him. A few days
later, therefore, he received the following mis-
sive:

"My dear Lygia:

" It seems that you ought to write to Vinicius, but illness
has probably enfeebled your epistolary powers. Address,
instead, the simplest, most unpretentious letter to a certain
M. Henryk Sienkiewicz, who lives in Warsaw/ several cen-
turies hence. I have every reason to believe that, if you
ask him prettily, he will arrange the matter without the
useless complications of further correspondence.

"I embrace you affectionately."

The novelist prefers to be known as the author
of the Trilogy : " With Fire and Sword," " The
Deluge," and " Pan Michael." No Pole ever re-
fers to him as the author of " Quo Vadis? " It is
in the Trilogy that he " mirrors his native land."
The other novels are not essentially typical.
" Quo Vadis? " is a powerful romance, but it is
not the Sienkiewicz milieu. " Without Dogma "
is a fascinating psychological study, but a study
that is human-broad. " The Family of Polan-
iecki " is also psychological and human, not ex-
clusively Polish. " The Knights of the Cross "
is the history of an obscure, seething period, set
in an absorbing romance. "On the Field of
Glory " is typical, but not comprehensive. The
Trilogy is Poland. Podbipienta, large-limbed,
large-hearted, chivalrous, taciturn, patient, re-
lentless, " so tall that his head nearly struck the

318

POLAND'S MODERN INTERPRETER

ceiling, . . . but with an honest, open ex-
pression like that of a child," represents Lithua-
nia, the vast, savage northeast domain that came
to the Commonwealth with the marriage of the
Christian Jadwiga to the barbarian Jagiello.
Zagloba is the type of the petite noblesse. Wo-
lodyjowski is the thorough-going soldier, the
splendid swordsman, a conqueror in war and
love, a very typical Polish character. Bohun, in
" With Fire and Sword," represents the Cossack,
and Azya, in " Pan Michael," the Tartar, those
fierce, untamed races, human birds of prey, that
surrounded the Polish Commonwealth, and but
for the swords of the Poles would have overrun
western Europe. Prince Boguslaw, of " The
Deluge," is the type of the " foreignised " Polish
aristocrat. French in manners, in dress, in hab-
its, French in the faultless punctiliousness and
pomp of his chivalry, he was Gallic also in his
hollow pretensions, in his cynicism, in his
amours. Boguslaw brought his French servants,
his French dress, and his French manners into
the Commonwealth, treating the Poles with
whom he came in contact as inferior beings, and
lauding foreign ways, foreign military service,
foreign everything. He is the prototype of the
Polish noble of to-day who so often lives abroad
— in France, in England, in Italy — who spends
his money lavishly at the English Derby, the
French Grand Prix, at Monte Carlo, on the Ri-

319

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

viera — but who, when he comes to Warsaw or
Cracow, the most Polish of cities, pulls tight his
purse-strings and haggles over the amount of
his hotel bill. A true, an unfortunately true,
type, this Boguslaw.

Pleasanter to contemplate are the wholly noble
creations of the Trilogy, especially so far as the
novelist could find real, actual, historic charac-
ters to stand as types. These types can be found
to-day among the Poles. Skrzetuski, the mirror
of chivalry; Wolodyjowski, the simple-minded,
ideal soldier; Kmicic, the dashing, devoted cava-
lier ; Kordecki, the patriot-priest ; Czarniecki, the
splendid, terrible leader of armies; Sapieha, the
large-souled, pleasure-loving marshal; Wis'nio-
wiecki, the peerless leader — what a splendid
array ! And all were actual, living men, as were
also the terrible Chmielnicki and the equally ter-
rible Janusz Radziwill.

His countrymen call the Trilogy the Polish
national epic, and some English critic has de-
clared that it has shown Sienkiewicz to be
" Scott and Dumas rolled into one, with the
added humour of Cervantes, and at times the
force of Shakespeare." With the tragic, tense,
bloody history of his country as a Cyclopean
background, he has swept with bold, beautiful
lines, and his brush has limned a marvellous pic-
ture. Battle, adventure, heroism, virile conflict,
are the strokes that stand out, but the eurythmy

320

POLAND'S MODERN INTERPRETER

that dominates the entire picture, the light that
suffuses the canvas, is that of love. Sienkiewicz
knows, with an exquisite knowledge that finds
at once the vital point of every situation, that
love is and should be the mainspring, the soul,
of the novel. He is not afraid of his theme. His
characters are not " goody-goodies." They are
far from being carpet-knights or shepherdesses
of Arcady. Occasionally, for one shuddering
second, we get a glimpse of the most brutal
depths in his men. They are always strong and
virile. He never shrinks from physical love, but
when he touches it, he does so incidentally,
lightly, and then passes. The reader's imagina-
tion is never soiled by his scenes or characters.

"Aside from the historical characters in the
Trilogy, you have given us a number of types,
have you not? If Skrzetuski, Chmielnicki,
Wisniowiecki, Kmicic, and Radziwill were actual
figures of history, what of Zagloba, of Podbi-
pienta, of Wolodyjowski? "

" Michael Wolodyjowski was an actual charac-
ter. There was a knight of that name, known far
and wide as i the best soldier of the Common-
wealth.' The manner of his death, including the
dramatic visit of Sobieski at his funeral, are his-
toric verities. The siege of the stronghold of
Kamieniec in Podolia happened just as I have
pictured it."

"And Zagloba?"

321]

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

" Zagloba is a type particularly common at the
time of which I have written, although I know
many Zaglobas to-day in Lithuania, and even
here in Galicia."

Boastful, yet brave, crafty in council, sharp
and witty of tongue, drinking by the bucket
rather than by the glass, with an appetite like
that of the boars of his native forests, cheerful
in the face of adverse fortune, with a humour
and kindliness quite unique, the old noble has no
analogue in any literature, with, perhaps, the ex-
ception of Shakespeare's Falstaff. I suggested
the similarity.

" If I may be permitted to make a compari-
son," he said, " I think that Zagloba is a better
character than Falstaff. At heart the old noble
was a good fellow. He would fight bravely when
it became necessary, whereas Shakespeare makes
Falstaff a coward and a poltroon."

A happier comparison, perhaps, is that of a
German critic, who calls Zagloba a second Ulys-
ses. Indeed, the old noble gloried in the resem-
blance he bore to the wily Greek. In stratagems
and deceptions, in outwitting or placating the
enemy, in making foes love each other by false
yet plausible honeyed speeches, for withering
sarcasm, Zagloba is certainly to be compared
with Homer's vir incomparabilis — having the
advantage of kindliness and humour, which the
Greek did not have.

322

POLAND'S MODERN INTERPRETER

" And what of simple, chivalrous Podbipienta,
the long Lithuanian knight? "

" Podbipienta is a fantasy, but a true type. In
him we see Lithuania." To those who know the
Lithuanians, the fidelity of the artist in depict-
ing Podbipienta is masterly.

It was the study of Homer, the novelist de-
clares, that gave him his first conceptions of
massive moving armies, of magnificent cam-
paigns of whole nations, which he has utilised in
his epic — the Trilogy.

" The Knights of the Cross " was the most dif-
ficult of all his novels to write. It deals with
characters and conditions of a time antecedent
to that of the Trilogy, and there was little or no
literature to draw from. " I had to dig out my
facts from the most obscure sources," he said.
The story is also written in old Polish, a harsher,
rougher tongue than the speech of to-day, and
more difficult to translate.

It was shortly after returning to Poland from
California that the young author met in Lithua-
nia a young lady of rare grace and spirit, who
soon won his heart and became his wife. Repro-
ductions of a painting of her which hang in the
Sienkiewicz house in Warsaw show her to have
been of distinguished appearance, with an ex-
quisitely delicate neck and an oval, aristocratic
face framed in blond hair — the type of Lithua-
nian beauty. Marya Szetkiewicz was for him the

323

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

embodiment of all beauty and idealistic love. She
taught him his true calling — to be interpreter of
the life and longings of his country. Under the
inspiration of her companionship and aid he
planned the Trilogy, and " With Fire and
Sword " was completed just before her death.

On my leaving, Mr. Sienkiewicz presented to
me a large, handsome bronze medal. "A sou-
venir of our great charm now," he said, with a
quiet smile — " our antiquity." It was struck in
commemoration of the five hundredth anniver-
sary of the University of Cracow.

" Old Giewont is very beautiful to-day," I re-
marked, as we looked toward the great peak of
the Tatry towering back of the cottage.

" Yes," he said. " I love these mountains, and
the mountaineers, also, with their picturesque
ways and beautiful, poetic language. One can
get many an inspiration from their simple live3
and delightful old legends."

In Cracow, in Warsaw, in Posen, in the three
divisions of the ancient Polish Commonwealth,
it is the same story one hears everywhere — Hen-
ryk Sienkiewicz is master of the hearts of his
countrymen. He looms up as the most precious,
the most representative, national figure. In nil
his Polish works it is the same. The Poles find
in them their patriotic credo. They are Poland
crystallised into literature. They are more.

3vtt

POLAND'S MODERN INTERPRETER

They contain the promise of a future, the germ
of the national regeneration.

On the twenty-fifth anniversary (in 1902) of
his entrance into literature the whole nation
joined in honouring him. It was a national fes-
tival. A beautiful estate of three hundred acres
at Oblengorek, in Russian Poland, with a man-
sion, all the work upon which was contributed
as a free gift by Polish artisans, was presented to
him. Many other rare and beautiful presents,
books, addresses, memorials, were also given.

I like to think of Henryk Sienkiewicz as I last
saw him — in mountain costume, stick in hand,
looking off toward Mount Giewont in that beau-
tiful Carpathian sunset. An old legend has it
that one of the brave Polish kings of ancient
times, with all his knights, sleeps in the fast-
nesses of this mountain. When the time comes,
and the Polish people are found worthy and
united, the legend says that the knights will
awake, and rush, in full armour, to the national
defence. The land will then be restored to its
ancient splendour. One can almost believe that
the word-master's beautiful pictures of Polish
love, chivalry, and patriotism have made the na-
tion's fabled deliverers stir in their sleep.

325

XX

THE POLES IN AMEEICA

IT was eminently fitting that, when exiled
from their native land for their devotion to
liberty, Poles of all walks in life and of every
social grade should turn their steps to the land
of Washington and Lincoln. The emigrations
that, in the latter half of the 18th century,
spread the Polish blood over widely separated
lands, naturally brought many of Poland's sons
to the United States, which were just then
fighting for their own independence. The names
of Kosciuszko and Pulaski stand out boldly on
the list of our Revolutionary heroes. The story
of Kazimierz Pulaski is of as deep interest to
Americans as that of Kosciuszko. Pulaski was
a full-blooded aristocrat, who, like Kosciuszko,
left Poland to fight for liberty. But he ac-
tually gave up his life in the cause of American
independence. There are monuments to Kosci-
uszko at West Point, in Chicago, Milwaukee, and
Cleveland, and Congress itself (in 1904) ap-
propriated $50,000 to erect an equestrian statue
of Pulaski in Washington. In 1905 the Poles in
this country offered to the American people a

326

THE POLES IN AMERICA

monument to Kosciuszko, to be erected on La-
fayette Square, in Washington. The memory of
these two heroic souls is also perpetuated in the
names of many counties, cities, and streets
throughout the country.

Other eminent Poles came in the early years
of our history. Niemcewicz, poet and friend of
Kosciuszko, came with the patriot leader to this
country in 1796. He married an American lady,
Mrs. Livingstone Keane, of New Jersey. Tys-
sowski, the " Dictator of Cracow," came here
after the revolution of 1846. His descendants
soon became good Americans.

The learned Adam Gurowski, one time trans-
lator to the State Department, entered so fully
into the American spirit and life that his " Diary
of 1861-65 " shows the keenest insight into the
politics and general conditions of our civil war
period.

The Polish peasants soon began to come in
large numbers to the promised land beyond the
sea. To-day there are about two and a quarter
million Poles in this country, and the number is
constantly increasing. Many thousands also are
in South America, chiefly in Brazil and Argen-
tina. The Pole and the Slovak are the most rep-
resentative of the Slav races that immigrate in
large numbers to this country. They make ex-
cellent raw material for our future American
citizens. They take kindly to American educa-

327

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

tional methods, particularly the Poles. The lat-
ter are more assertive than the other members
of the Slav stock that come here. They are not
so submissive to the Church, and have a greater
national consciousness. However, that does not
prevent them from becoming quickly identified
with American life, of which they become an im-
portant part, while a large proportion of the
other Slavic peoples return to the countries
whence they came.

The Poles grow up and become good Ameri-
cans. Around the centralising power, which is
usually the Church, the Polish town grows and
expands, and under the influence of the Ameri-
can public school soon becomes an American
municipality. Very soon the entire family joins
the father. As soon as the rude immigrant has
saved enough he sends for Kasia, Hanka, and the
little ones, who await with impatience the word
that Jan has prospered in the new world. The
Polish immigrants spread over our great West,
and the cities of Buffalo, Chicago, Milwaukee,
Pittsburg, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Detroit, and
Toledo are the main centres in which they con-
gregate. In Chicago alone there are more than
250,000 of them, forming the largest Polish city
in the world after Warsaw and L6dz. They
come from all sections of the former Common-
wealth, but principally from Galicia. They are,
in general, industrious, frugal, and soon amass

328

THE POLES IN AMERICA

a competency. Comparatively few professional
men or members of the upper social classes have
came to this country except for political reasons,
as the love for the fatherland is so strong in the
Polish heart, although a few such spirits as Mod-
jeska and her husband have lived here. Mr.
Ralph Modrzejewski (Modjeski), of Chicago,
the son of the famous Polish-American trage-
dienne, is an eminent engineer. He was, for
some years, bridge engineer for the Union Pa-
cific Railroad Company. He has been called the
leading consulting bridge engineer in the coun-
try. An eminent Polish priest, Father Kruszka,
of Ripon, Wisconsin, in his "History of the
Poles in America," gives the following statistical
information as to the present (1907) Polish
population in the United States (I quote even
thousands) :

Pennsylvania 423,000.

Illinois 389,000

New York 356,000

Wisconsin 198,000

Michigan 161,000

Massachusetts 129,000

Ohio 96,000

New Jersey 93,000

Minnesota 89,000

Connecticut 61,000

Indiana 41,000

Missouri 21,000

Maryland 19,000

Nebraska 19,000

Texas 18,000

329

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

Rhode Island 10,000

Delaware 9,000

California 7,000

North Dakota 6,000

Kansas 5,000

New Hampshire 5,000

Washington 4,000

Colorado 4,000

Iowa 4,000

South Dakota 3,000

Kentucky 3,000

Maine 3,000

Oklahoma 3,000

Oregon 3,000

Tennessee 3,000

Arkansas 3,000

Montana 2,000

Indian Territory 2,000

Vermont 2,000

Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, South Carolina,
Mississippi, North Carolina, and Florida have
about 1,000 each, making a total of somewhat
over 2,000,000.

Since the census figures for natives of Poland
include Polish Jews, they are of little use for our
purpose, so that it is particularly fortunate that
we have so devoted a student of Polish conditions
in America as Father Kruszka to fall back upon.
These figures refer, of course, to all those who,
whether themselves born of Polish parents or
not, count in the community as Poles. As re-
gards the urban population it is impossible to
tell what proportion of the Poles are city dwel-
lers, but following are approximate figures : Chi-

830

THE POLES IN AMERICA

cago, 250,000; Buffalo and immediate suburbs,
about 75,000; Milwaukee, 65,000; Detroit and
immediate suburbs, 65,000; Pittsburg and im-
mediate suburbs, upwards of 50,000; Cleveland
and immediate suburbs, 30,000; New York,
Brooklyn, and Jersey City, 210,000; Toledo,
14,000.

The Polish peasant rapidly learns the English
language and American ways. Indeed, a rather
significant commentary on the proper way to
make an alien people learn the language of the
country in which they live is furnished by the
way the Poles are learning English in this coun-
try. In common with the other foreign immi-
grants, the Poles soon come to understand that,
if they wish to succeed in business, in politics, in
life generally, they must learn the language of
the country in which they live. They send their
children at once to school — public or parochial.
In 1905 there were in American universities and
colleges 535 sons of Polish mine workers. These
go home and not only accustom their parents
to the sound of the English speech, but are even
introducing English words and idioms into the
Polish spoken at home. The next stage is to use
English almost exclusively. Listen for a few
minutes to the conversation of a Pole in one of
our large cities and you will be almost certain
to hear a number of words that sound like Eng-
lish. They turn out to be really such, only

331

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

slightly modified to suit the Slav palate and ear.
For example, a Pole will use the phrase " na
kornerze," " at the corner," or he will say " mu-
fowac" " to move," " sztrita," " the street" This,
after all, is the natural method of learning a
language, and therefore more effective than the
method of compulsion by sabre and cannon.

In this matter of the Americanisation of the
Poles, I quote the following extract from an ar-
ticle on " The Polish Community in the United
States" in the weekly My si Polska (Polish
Thought) , of Warsaw, of April 20, 1907, by Louis
Wlodek, who recently made a tour of the Polish
colonies in the United States. Mr. Wlodek
writes :

" The degree of denationalisation is defined by
two factors : the affection for the old fatherland
that they have left, and the relation to the new
fatherland, America. The affection for the na-
tive land, as a feeling based on a real substruc-
ture, on the love of the land, exists very vividly
in the first generation of the immigrants, but it
cannot exist in the second generation, which has
been born in America. The affection of the first
is expressed most strongly in the sending of all
their savings to the old country (Galicia, and in
a smaller part, the Kingdom) for the buying of
land there, less frequently in a return to the
fatherland. The patriotism of the second is

332

THE POLES IN AMERICA

more platonic, is based on the love of the his-
torical traditions, especially the tradition of the
struggles for independence, and also on hatred
to the foes of Poland, the three spoliatory
powers. These feelings must be called platonic,
for they are expressed in resolutions adopted at
mass-meetings, in addresses at such meetings;
never, however, can they impel to action. There
is, however, one exception : the idea of an armed
insurrection enjoys great popularity among the
Poles in America.

"Obviously Americanisation proceeds first of
all along lingual paths. The immigrant whose
first steps in this land were made enormously
difficult, and whose whole life is still made diffi-
cult by his ignorance of the English language,
wishes to save his children from this obstacle,
and he therefore willingly sends them to the
English school, willingly sees the adoption by
them of the local customs, and their growing into
the American relations. The less cultured the
peasants, the more distinctly do these charac-
teristics appear; and the children's knowledge
of the Polish language and their Polish feelings
are in direct relation to the home surroundings
and home education, to the degree of the affection
of the parents for Polonism. The children in
the majority of cases become accustomed to
speak and to think in English ; this language be-
comes their daily language, while the Polish lan-

88$

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

guage and Polonism are the synonyms of the
festal celebration of the Polish holidays. Hence,
we see children that on the platform have just
sung Polish songs or declaimed Polish verses,
speaking familiarly with one another in English
as they are descending from the platform. These
children later, when they grow up, will speak
familiarly with one another likewise in English,
carrying on at the same time a conversation with
guests in Polish. Many of them will remain in
the mob, but many of them will be graduated
from the universities — in this way there arises
the Polish-American intelligent class."

Hitherto the only intelligent Polish class in
America were the priests, who thus possessed
" an absolute influence," and men that, with few
exceptions, had had in the old country " differ-
ences" with the penal code. To quote Mr.
Wlodek again:

" There now arises a new intelligent class,
born on American soil, by feeling and tradition
Polish, by disposition and habits American, by
language belonging to Poland and to America,
with a certain predominance in favour of the lat-
ter. There are even types of undoubted Poles
who do not understand a word of Polish and who
send their articles, written in English, to Polish
periodicals.

88*

THE POLES IN AMERICA

" These types are in general sympathetic.
Educated in America, adapted to the self-help
of the life there, more reasonable and more highly
educated than their parents, the immigrants
of the first generation, they constitute un-
doubtedly a positive element in the Polish com-
munity of America. Not only feeling, but also
interest ties them to Polonism; every one of
them is too much of an American not to cherish
political ambitions, and Polonism facilitates the
realisation of these ambitions, assuring them the
Polish votes at the elections. The same applies
to the occupations that they have chosen. Po-
lonism gives them a Polish clientele, which is
undoubtedly the easiest, and by no means the
worst. This same interest binds to Polonism
perhaps still more the priests born and educated
in America, for it guarantees them Polish par-
ishes, which are easier to govern and are very
profitable. When we speak of the future of the
Polish-American intelligent class, we must not
lose sight of this factor of interest which is very
characteristic of America.

" The only effectual dikes against the wave of
Americanisation are built by the Church, together
with the Polish school, which is wholly in its
hands, the powerful alliances and associations,
and last, but not least, the Polish periodical
press. All these factors taken together cannot
save the American Poles from partial denation-

835

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

alisation. They must not, however, be slighted,
for without them we should not have any Poles in
America to-day. It is obviously impossible to
form close statistics of how many of them we are
losing annually, but we can say with entire cer-
tainty that the eventual losses are covered with
interest by the annual influx of fresh Polish im-
migrants from Europe. We must add, however,
that we are losing the most intelligent, the more
civilised, the socially more valuable individuals,
while we are gaining a pretty ignorant mob,
which is not qualified for American conditions,
although in this respect, too, there is visible a
great progress: in the measure of the develop-
ment of education in all parts of the old Repub-
lic, the emigration wave is casting on the
American shores elements constantly less igno-
rant."

It will be interesting to refer, briefly, to some
of the best-known American Poles. One of the
most eminent of this race, most of whose career
was passed in this country, was Dr. Henry Kor-
win Kalussowski, who died in 1894, at the age of
eighty-eight Dr. Kalussowski's father was cham-
berlain to Stanislaw Poniatowski, the last of the
Polish kings. The younger Kalussowski fought
in the Polish insurrection of 1830. In 1838 he
came to the United States. Speaking fluently
fourteen languages, he soon secured lucrative

886

THE POLES IN AMERICA

employment as a teacher of French and Latin in
New York. In 1848 he returned to Europe and
participated in the revolutionary movement of
that year. Later he served as a Polish member
of the German Parliament from the grand duchy
of Posen. He was afterward, however, expelled
by the Prussian government, and returned to the
United States to live permanently. During our
own Civil War he raised the 31st New York Regi-
ment. He also served the government in various
capacities, occupying several positions in the
Treasury Department, and translating from the
Russian all the official documents relating to the
purchase of Alaska. Dr. Kalussowski was chief
organiser of the "Association of the Poles in
America," founded in 1842 by those patriots who
had participated in the revolution of 1830.

Another patriot, warrior, and statesman who
contributed to our national life was Professor
Leopold Julian Boeck. This patriot served in
the Hungarian revolution under Louis Kossuth.
It was through the intervention of the United
States Minister at Constantinople that the Ot-
toman government refused to give up Dr. Boeck,
then a prisoner of state at the Turkish capital,
to the Russian and Austrian authorities. After
a few years, as professor of higher mathematics
in the Sorbonne at Paris, Professor Boeck, un-
able to breathe freely in the empire of Louis
Napoleon, came to New York. Here he founded

837

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

the Polytechnic Institute, said to be the first in
the United States. After the Civil War Profes-
sor Boeck was called to the chair of mathematics
and engineering in the University of Virginia.
In 1873 President Grant appointed him Ameri-
can Educational Commissioner at the Universal
Exposition in Vienna. Three years later, Pro-
fessor Boeck represented the National Govern-
ment at the Philadelphia Exposition in the same
capacity. When he died he was professor of
languages at the University of Pennsylvania.

The science of war in its modern aspect owes
much to Edmund Louis Gray Zalinski, soldier,
patriot, and inventor of the pneumatic torpedo
gun. Captain Zalinski was born in Prussian
Poland in 1849, coming with his parents to New
York State when only four years of age. He
received an American education, entered the
United States army as volunteer, served on the
staff of General Miles until the close of the War
of the Eebellion, was promoted for gallantry,
mustered out of service in 1865, and reached the
rank of captain in December, 1887. Captain
Zalinski became professor of military science
in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
and occupied chairs of a similar nature in other
institutions. He also studied at the United
States Artillery School at Fortress Monroe, and
the School of Submarine Mining at Willets'
Point, New York. He devoted six or seven years

338

THE POLES IN AMERICA

to the development and perfecting of the pneu-
matic dynamite torpedo gun. In 1889 he was
sent abroad to study military science in Europe.
Among his inventions are an intrenching tool, a
telescopic sight for artillery, and a system of
range and position finding for sea coast and artil-
lery firing. He retired in 1892 and at present
lives in New York City.

Besides Kalussowski and Zalinski, a number
of other Poles served in our Civil War, among
them Colonel Krzyzanowski, Louis Zychlinski,
and Colonel Joseph Smolinski, the last named
being only sixteen years of age at his commission,
the youngest cavalry officer who served during
the war. Colonel Smolinski is a veteran news-
paper correspondent. He is also prominent in
G. A. R. work, and interested in bibliographical
work in the War Department. He was the prime
mover in the idea that finally culminated in the
erection of the Pulaski monument in Washing-
ton, to the fund for which the National Govern-
ment contributed $50,000.

One of the most famous women of Polish na-
tionality, whose career is bound up with Ameri-
can life, was I}r. Mary Elizabeth Zakrzewska.
When only eighteen years of age this lady began
the study of medicine in the Royal Hospital of
Berlin, afterward becoming a member of the
staff of that institution. Hearing that in the
United States women could become full doctors

339

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

of medicine, Dr. Zakrzewska resigned her posi-
tion and emigrated in 1853. Three years later
she graduated from the Western Reserve College
of Medicine at Cleveland. She was associated
with Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell in establishing the
New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and
Children. She also founded the New England
Hospital for Women and Children in 1861, of
which she was director and adviser until her
death in 1902.

An eminent Polish-American sculptor, some of
whose works, including two busts of Kosciuszko
and Pulaski, are now in the Capitol at Washing-
ton, was Henry Dmochowski. This patriot was
killed in the Revolution of '63. Another sculp-
tor of eminence, and the creator of the Kos-
ciuszko monument in Chicago, is Casimir
Chodzinski.

Among poets, novelists, and musicians of
Polish nativity who distinguished themselves in
this country were Edward Sobolewski, Mrs. Sa-
molinska, Julian Horain, and Helena Stas, who
has written some interesting stories of Polish
life in America.

Noteworthy among physicians who have a
reputation extending beyond their own State is
Dr. Francis E. Pronczak, who has been for many
years a member of the Buffalo Board of Health.

Prince Andrew Poniatowski, a direct descend-
ant of the celebrated Joseph Poniatowski, one of

840

THE POLES IN AMERICA

Napoleon's marshals, has had an eminent ca-
reer as a capitalist. He now resides in Cali-
fornia.

Among the many devoted and industrious Po-
lish clergy in this country, one of the particularly
patriotic is the Rev. Waclaw Kruszka of Ripon,
Wisconsin, whom I have already mentioned. He
is prominently identified with the movement for
the creation of Polish bishops in this country.
He has written a ten-volume " History of the
Poles in America."

An editorial political writer of note, at pres-
ent editor of the journal Dziennik Narodowy, of
Chicago, is Stanislaw Osada, who has recently
completed a " History of the Polish National Al-
liance and of the Development of the Polish
Movement in America."

The Poles in the United States are proud also
of Felix S. Zahajkiewicz, former editor of the
Nar6d Polski, of Chicago, now an instructor
in one of the schools of that city. Mr. Zahajkie-
wicz is a fiction writer, a poet, and a playwright,
whose poems and songs are rendered at na-
tional celebrations. His historical tragedy,
" Kr6lowa Jadwiga," was first produced in Chi-
cago in 1895. Mr. Waclaw Perkowski is a
journalist who contributes regularly to the met-
ropolitan press and some of the best American
magazines. Zygmunt Ivanowski and Wladyslaw
Benda are two Polish painters living in this

341

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

country with whose work the readers of the lead-
ing American fiction magazines are familiar.

The violent death (April 1, 1903) in the auto-
mobile hill-climbing race between Nice and La
Turbie, France, of the New York society leader
and famous polo player and horseman, Count
William Elliott Zborowski, recalled the fact that
Zborowski is the original Polish form of the
name Zabriskie, which is so well known in Amer-
ica on account of the social prominence of so
many members of the family. The Zabriskie is
an interesting family which has had much to do
with social and business affairs in and about
New York for 250 years. Indeed the Zabriskies
are perhaps the oldest family of Polish origin in
the United States. There are several branches,
the best-known residing in New York City. The
original Zborowskis settled near Hackensack, N.
J., and were agriculturists for several genera-
tions. Martin, one of the original three brothers,
studied law in New York, devoting himself par-
ticularly to the real estate branch of that pro-
fession, soon building up an immense and lucra-
tive practice. Martin Zborowski later married
Anna E. Morris, a member of the Gouverneur
Morris family. At the outbreak of the Civil War
he had already acquired a great deal of valuable
real estate in New York City. By shrewd in-
vestments this estate has been vastly increased in
value. Occupying as it does many holdings on

842

THE POLES IN AMERICA

Upper Broadway, the estate now exerts a power-
ful interest in New York business life. At the
death of Elliott Zborowski his fortune was esti-
mated at over $10,000,000. It is a very large
family with many widely separated branches.
At the fourteenth anniversary of the Polish in-
surrection of 1830 there were present Zborowski
descendants of Poles who had settled in the
United States one hundred and eighty years
before.

Poles have been eminent in other countries of
the Western Hemisphere besides our own. In
Chile, the eminent geologist, Ignatius Domeyko,
was rector of the University of Santiago for a
quarter of a century. General Carlos Roloff, the
Treasurer of Cuba, who died during the year
1907, was a Pole, and aided the Cubans in their
revolution under Gomez. Marrying a sister of
President Palma, he settled down on a sugar
plantation. He commanded a division in the
last war against Spain, also spending much time
in New York, working with the Junta. When
Palma became president, General Roloff was ap-
pointed treasurer, continuing in that office under
Governor Magoon's administration.

To Polish editors in this country, indeed, who
are among the brightest of their race here, is due
much credit for the general education of their
countrymen. Together with the parochial
schools, and the many benevolent and fraternal

343

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

organisations of Poles, the Polish-American
press has done and is doing a very considerable
educational work. Polish-American journalism
is represented by some fifty newspapers, most of
them published in the Central or Western Sta
Among these, the most prominent, perhaps, are
Zgoda {Harmony, weekly), Dziennik Chicagosbi
(Chicago Daily), Dziennik Narodoicy (National
Daily), the Gazeta Polska (Polish Gazette), the
Gazeta Katolicka (Catholic Gazette), all in
Chicago; the Kuryer Polski (Polish Courier),
(Milwaukee), and the Dziennik Polski (Polish
Daily), (Detroit). During 1907 there first ap-
peared the Prasa Polska (Polish Press) in Mil-
waukee, a monthly printed one-half in English
and one-half in Polish, which makes a specialty
of statistics.

With all their national love for ceremony and
social intercourse, the American Poles have
many organisations through which they satisfy
their social and military instincts. The Polish
National Alliance, educational and benevolent,
with a membership of over 50,000, is the strong-
est of these organisations, but there are many
others with more limited fields. In the United
States the Polish national movement is con-
ducted under the auspices of this Polish National
Alliance (Zwianzek Narodowy Polski). The
membership of this organisation is increasing at
the rate of from six thousand to seven thousand

544

THE POLES IN AMERICA

a year. The Alliance has nothing to do with
party politics, but aims primarily to make the
Polish residents of the United States good citi-
zens of the land of their adoption without for-
getting their Polish tongue and traditions. It
endeavours to perpetuate the knowledge of the
Polish language, literature, and history, and to
lend organised assistance to the cause of Polish
independence in Europe. In the Alliance build-
ing in Chicago is published the Zgoda, the of-
ficial organ of the Alliance, a well-edited weekly
magazine with a circulation of fifty thousand.
The Alliance library, in the same building, has
the largest collection of Polish books in the
United States. There are about five thousand
volumes in the Polish language, and about two
thousand in the Lithuanian, Latin, and English
languages. Here also are located the insurance
offices of the organisation, every active member
of the organisation being required to carry a
policy. The National Alliance has a Board of
Education which is active in organising educa-
tional circles and libraries in the various Polish
colonies. Besides this the Board publishes edu-
cational and political pamphlets and extends
financial aid to the sons and daughters of the
Alliance attending higher schools. The Alli-
ance also supports a Commission of Schools, the
object of which is to erect other institutions and
collect funds for the erection of a Polish univer-

345

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

sity in this country; a Commission of Immigra-
tion; a Commission of Trade and Industry
(which watches for work and business opportuni-
ties for Poles, publishing the results of its re-
search in the Zgoda) ; a Commission of Agricul-
ture and Colonisation, and an Aid Department,
the last named for indigent members of the Al-
liance. The strongest Polish institution of
learning in the United States is the Seminaryum
Polskie (Polish Seminary), situated at Detroit,
and receiving the support of the National Alli-
ance. It has about three hundred students, all
but forty being in the academy, and a faculty of
nineteen professors and instructors. Several
men of distinguished scholarship and ability have
served on this faculty. There is Professor
Thomas Siemiradzki, now editor of the Zgoda,
whose " Post-Partition History of Poland " was
recently issued by the Alliance. This vigorous
narrative has not yet been translated. Profes-
sor Siemiradzki was born in Lithuania in 1859,
and was educated in the universities of Leipzig
and Berlin. He was professor of Greek and
Latin four years at Kielce, near Warsaw, and
afterward at Lomza and Odessa. He was ap-
pointed professor of law in the University of
Kazan, Russia, but was arrested before reach-
ing his post. In 1890 he was arrested in War-
saw for complicity in the patriotic work of the
National League, and confined for three months

546

THE POLES IN AMERICA

in the citadel at Warsaw, and then for six months
in the Cross prison at St. Petersburg. After this
he was forbidden to live in the Kingdom of Po-
land, which was the chief cause of his emigration
to America. He came to the United States in
1896, on the invitation of the Polish National
Alliance. In 1901 he was elected editor of the
Zgoda.

The Poles in the United States have always
maintained their race's reputation for idealistic
conduct. They have fought in our wars. Nor
have they failed to show the idealistic qual-
ities in civil life. It was reserved for a Pole, the
late Peter Kiolbassa, for many years treasurer
of the second city in America, to be the first
municipal official that refused to accept for him-
self the interest on city money (invested) during
his term of office. Mr. John P. Smulski, a Pole,
who was one of the most respected city attorneys
in the history of Chicago, is at this writing
(July, 1907) State Treasurer of Illinois.

847

NOTE ON THE PRONUNCIATION OF
POLISH

IT has been asserted that the Polish conso-
nants are hard to pronounce. Why only the
consonants? The Polish vowels also are
hard to pronounce. Both consonants and vow-
els are hard if you do not know how to pronounce
them; both the vowels and those terrible conso-
nants are easy if you do know how to pronounce
them. And this is where the beauty of the Polish
pronunciation comes in, for each letter (with the
exception of w) has one sound, and only that
sound. Take the English language : what vowel
has but one sound? And the consonants: are
there not many that vary in pronunciation? Of
course, if the reader persists in giving English
values to Polish letters, the combination will be
agreeable neither to his jaw nor to the Polish
word, but, pronouncing them in the right way
(which, by the way, is the easiest way), he will
not find any difficulty. Following is a list of
those Polish letters that require explanation.
Armed with the information contained in this
list, the Anglo-Saxon reader can safely venture

348

PRONUNCIATION OF POLISH

to meet those formidable Polish words, as the
pronunciation is always uniform for the same
letter :

a — as a in father,

a — as ong in song,

c — as t s in Tsar,

cz — as ch in church,

6 — as a very soft ch,

e — as e in met.

e — as eng in strength,

g— as g in good,

i — as e in mete,

j — as y in yet and in boy,

\ — as w in will,

6 — as n in canon,

o — as u in but,

<5 — as oo in hood,

rz is a combination of r and the French ; in
jour ; occurring in the body of a word, it may for
all practical purposes be pronounced as sh,

s — as s in sit,

sz — as sh in bush,

s — as a very soft sh,

u — as u in put,

w (at beginning of a syllable) — as v in vine,

w (at end of syllable) — as ff in cuff,

y — as * in it,

z — as English z,

z — as French / in jour,

z" — as a very soft French /.
349

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

The accent, except in foreign words and in
compounds, is constantly on the penultimate syl-
lable, as P6*lak, a Pole; Polaka, genitive; Po-
lakoVi, dative.

That is the whole scheme, and the whole secret
of the matter. Here are a few of the most diffi-
cult Polish words appearing in this volume :

Chlopicki

Chmielnicki

Chocim

Czestochowa

Dabrowski

Jasna G6*ra

Kamieniec

Kosciuszko

L<5dz

Lw6w

Matejko

Miod

Podbipieta

Potocki

Przybyszewski

Pufaski

Sejm

Bienkiewicz

Skrzetuski

Wis'niowiecki

Wotodyjowski

Wrocfaw

PRONOUNCED

Hwupp-eets-kee

Hmyell-neets-kee

Hotsim

Chens-to-hoh-vah

Dong-bruff-skee

Yas-nah Goo-rah

Kam-yehn-yets

Kosh-tsyoosh-ko

Woodzh

Lvoof

Mah-tay-ko

Mute

Pudd-bee-pyeng-tah

Po-tutts-kee

Pshih-bee-shev-skee

Poo-wah-skee

Same

Syenn-kyeh-veech

Skshe-toos-kee

Veesh-nyo-vyetts-kee

Vo-wo-dee-yufif-skee

Vrots-wahv

850

PRONUNCIATION OF POLISH

Following is a list of the principal Polish
Christian names used in this volume (except in
the chapter on " Poles in America," where
English forms are used), with their English
equivalents :

Boteslaw

Boleslaus

Henryk

Henry

Ignacy

Ignatius

Jadwiga

Hedwig

Jan

John

Jeremi

Jeremiah

Karol

Charles

Kazimierz

Casimir

Ludwik

Louis

Ludwika

Louise

Marya

Mary

Stanislaw

Stanislaus

Stefan

Stephen

Tadeusz

Thaddeus

Wincenty

Vincent

Wojciech

Adalbert

Wladyslaw

Ladislaus

Wfodzimierz

Vladimir

Zygmunt

Sigismund

Translators of Polish novels have recently
adopted the rule of spelling Polish names accord-
ing to their idea of how English readers can best
grasp the pronunciation, and the reading public

351

POLAND: THE KNIGHT AMONG NATIONS

meets with the names of the greatest characters
in Polish history spelled in every imaginable way
but that of the encyclopedias. Believing that
this must be as distasteful to the Poles as a like
treatment of American names would be to Ameri-
cans, the author of this volume has spelled in the
preceding pages Polish names as they are spelled
by the Poles. There are but few exceptions to
this. The a and e with a -cedilla, thus, a, §, giving
the nasa.1 sound, has not been used. An n or an
m has been inserted after the simple English let-
ter in these cases. Nor have Polish crossed
Z's been used. The writer has also used the Polish
forms of the names of places, except in a few
cases in which the names have become so well
known in their English form as to render the
Polish form unrecognisable, e.g., Warsaw, not
Warszawa; Cracow, not KrakoV; Posen, not
Poznati.

Waclaw Peekowski.

M2

INDEX

Adalbert, St., see Wojciech, Catholicism, in Russia, 106,

St. 107; and nationality in

America, Poles in, 326-347 Poland, 192

Aristocracy, in Warsaw, 133 Chelmonski, 277

Art, see also Painting, chap- Cnmielnicki, begins war

ter on Polish, 274-286 against Poland, 182, 183

Asnyk, Adam, 282 Chodzinski, Casimir, 340

Austria, Polish autonomy Chopin, significance of ma-
under, 30-43 ; diverse sic of, 271, 272
races of, 37-40 ; Catholi- Colonisation Comm i s s i o n
cism in, 39-40; foreign (Prussian), 89, 90
politics of, 41 ; Poles in, Conde, Prince of, candidate
42, 43 for the Polish throne, 141

Copernicus, the geogra-

Balzac, see Madame Hanska pher of the heavens, 287-

Benda, Wladyslaw, 341 293; studies at the Uni-

Berlin, the dominating Eu- versity of Cracow, 287,

ropean capital, 79, 80 289 ; claimed by Prussia,

Bismarck, on Germany's 288 ; born in Thorn, 289 ;

foreign policies, 77, and lectures at Bologna, 289 ;

the Poles, 87; tribute of, goes to Rome, 289; toils

to Polish women, 223 at his book, 291 ; book

Boeck, Professor Leopold printed in Nuremburg,

Julian, 337, 338 291; dies, 292

Boguslaw, of " The Deluge," Corpus Christi, see Boz6

319, 320 Cialo

Bohemians, see Czechs Cossacks, in Warsaw, 128;

Boleslaw the Great, rec- kill an aged Jew, 260

ognised king of Poland, Cracow, the Heart of Po-

75, 76 land, 44-69; University of,

Boz6 Cialo, celebration in 44-46 ; second Polish capi-

Cracow, 61-65 tal, 49 ; insurrection of

Brandes, Georg, on Poland, 1846, 51 ; churches of, 60 ;

12 theatre of, 65; Jews of,

Brandt, 277 248, 254, 255

Bureaucracy, see Russiflca- Customs, Polish country life

tion and, 294-312; hospitality

in Poland, 295 ; the Polish

Campbell (English poet), dw6r, 296; festivities of

pn Koscluszko, 174 Carnival, 298, 303, 304;

853

INDEX

Christmas in Poland, 299, and the Slav, 80; and

303; Candlemas Day. 304, Scandinavia, 82, 83

305 ; Renkawka, 3 7; Glowacki, Bartos, exploit at

Smigus, 307 ; Gromniczna, Raclawice, 172

304 ; Zielone swiantki, Godebski, Cyprian, sculptor,

308; Dzien zaduszny (All 279, 280

Souls' Day), 309; family Gnesen, history of, 71-75

life, 309, 310; social caste Greene (Gen.), aided by

system, 310, 312 Kosciuszko, 1G0

Czechs, and St Wojciech, Gromnice, feast of. 247

71, 73 Grottger, Artur, paintings

Czenstoehowa, siege of, by of, 276

the Swedes, 192-206 Gurowski, Adam, 327

rw*™.™.,,^ t»„~„t,„« » Hague Peach Conference

DET-BRT'ECK, PBOFES80B ,..„ «„ + \ mo .^^^i n \ ^t

Hans on the "Polish (the first) ' memoriai of
?«™!'r» oj. American Poles to, 20

Dmochowsk^ Henry, 340 Haika richness of themes

DO T^rr 8 So and the P ° Ii8h Han'ska (Madame) and Bal-
ijegion, iiv ooo

Domeyko, Ignatius, 343 Hpi„oi*'w k±

Drama, in Warsaw, 132, 133 „*{??'' T«iXr« *m>

Duma, the Russian, and Po- S?™i n ' J ul ^J£ nf tfW

innrt 111 11<* Hungary, attitude of, to-
iana, m, ua wflrd AustrIan Imp erial-

Falat 278 279 ism, 40

"Finis Poionuer Kosciuszko ^.^j^* £%£%£"'

denies saying, 174, 175 ra » Jews at ' Jo8 * zm

France, and America " rec- T „ t „ nT „ a „, *„„„„„„ oai

conciled" by Kosciuszko, Ivanowski, Ztqmunt, 341

Franklfn, 2 Benjamin, on Jad ™A <*™ N ' 8aIntly llfe

Kosciuszko 159 '

Fronczak, Dr. Francis E., 3 %f°^ ke ° f Lithuanla '

Japan, Russia's war with.
112

Gansiobowski, Waclaw, Jasna G6ra. 192-206

282 Jefferson, Thomas, entrusted
Galicia, general condition with will of Kosciuszko,

of, 31-36 162

Gates, Gen., aided by Kos- Jew, Herman Rosenthal in

ciuszko, 160 Jewish Encyclopedia on,

Germanisation, failure of, in 12 ; of Kamleniec. 217.

Poland, 85 218: enters Poland, 249;

Germany, world dream of, in Poland, 248-204; mint-

and the Poles, 79-98; for- ing Polish coins, HO;

eign policies of, 77, 78; valour of, 250; killed by

854

INDEX

Cossacks, 260; praised by will to Jefferson, 162;
Mickiewicz, 250 ; 50-verst " reconciles " France and
law in Russia, 261 ; in the America, 161, 162 ; founds
pale, 262 ; in Warsaw, school in Newark, New
262; in America, 252, 258, Jersey, 163; friendship
259; in Cracow, 254, 255; with Thomas Jefferson,
degradation of, 254-256; 163; made a major gen-
home life of, 257 eral in the Polish army,

Jewish Encyclopedia, article 164; receives contribu-
on Polish Jew in, 12 tions from coal-heavers of

Cracow, 169; defeated at

Kalussowski, Db. Henby Szczekocin, 173, at Macie-
K., 336, 337 jowice, 174; denies say-

Kamieniec, siege of, by the ing " Finis Polonice" 174,
Turks, 207-220; Jew of, 175; relations with Na-
253 poleon, 178; monument

Kazimierz the Great, founds to, in Cracow, 180

University of Cracow, 45; Kosciuszko, Ludwik, death
and his love for the Jew- of, 155; wife of and
ish Esther, 248 mother of Tadeusz, 155

Kazimierz of Cracow, the Kossak, 277

Jew in the, 254, 255 Kosyniery, in army of Kos-

Kingdom of Poland, see ciuszko at Raclawice, 171,
Warsaw 172

Kiolbassa, Peter, 347 Kozak, dirge of the steppes,

Konopnicka, Marya, 282 270

Kordecki, statue of, 198, Krakau, see Cracow

204 Krak6w, see Cracow

Kordjan, performed in the Krakus, builds the Wawel,
Cracow theatre, 66, 69; 49

compared to " Faust," 281 Krasinski, 281

Kosciuszko, Tadeusz, not Kraszewski, writings of
hero of "Thaddeus of 281, 282

Warsaw," 8; wreaths laid Kr61estwo Polskie, see War-
on tomb of, 46, 47; oath- saw

tablet in Cracow, 52, 53; Kruszka, Rev. Waclaw, 341
the "Real Thaddeus of Krzesz, Joseph, 278
Warsaw," 153-180; patri- Krzyzanowski, Col., 339
otism of, 154; genealogy Kulczycki, and Vienna rolls,
of, 154; travels and 150, 151
studies in France, 157 ; Kunegunda, gives her dowry
enlists under Washington, to Poland, 224
159, 160 ; teaches fort con-
struction to the American Land, how the Poles cling
army under Gates and at to the, 88
West Point, 160; statue Language (Polish), and
in Chicago, 160 ; writes on Prussian schools, 90, 91 ;
artillery, 162 ; leaves his and Russian law, 105, 106,

855

INDEX

108; preserved by the
Polish women, 222 ; note
on pronunciation of, 348-
353

Lelewel, historical writings
of, 281

Lemberg, in history, 210

Leopol, see Lemberg

Leopold of Austria, besieged
in Vienna, 145

Leszczynska, Mv.rya, and
Louis XIV., of France,
223

Literature, in Warsaw, 133 ;
of present-day Poland,
281, 282

Lodz, growth of, 125

Louis XIV, of France, ri-
valry of, with Austria,
145, 146; and Marya
Leszczynska, 223
Lw6w, see Lemberg

Maciejowice, battle of, 174

Mahan, Captain, on Russia's
vulnerability, 100

Malczewski, 277, 278

Mary, the Virgin, see Panna
Marya

Marysienka (Queen Marya
Kazimiera), 144, 145

Matejko, Jan, restores the
church of Panna Marya,
60; decorates the Cracow
theatre, 65 ; historical
paintings of, 70; house
preserved in Cracow, 274;
methods and qualities of,
274, 276

Matka Boska, legends of,
245-247

May 3, 1791, Constitution of,
24, 160

Mazcppa. story of, 207

Melioffer, 278, 'JT'.»

Miekiewiez, praises the Po-
lish Jew, 200; monuments

to, in Cracow and War-
saw, 279, 281
Modjeska, Helena, introduc-
tion to this volume by, 7;
artistic career of, 282-285
Modjeski, Ralph, 329
Moniuszko, see Halka
Morfill. W. K., on Poland, 12
Moszkowski. waltzes of, 273
Music, and the Slav temper-
ament, 265-273
" Mysl Polska," quoted on
Poles in America, 332-336

Napoleon, on Warsaw, 129 ;

and Ko8Ciuszko, 178, 179;

and Madame Walewska,

223
National Alliance (Polish),

in the United States, 344,

345, 346
Niemcewicz, with Kosci-

uszko in the United

States, 327

Obzeszko, Eliza, 282
Osada, Stanislaw, 341

Padebewski, an estimate of,

272
Painting, a race of artists

by birth. 274--JSfi
Pale, the Jew in, 2«;*_ >
Pan Michael, the country of,

207-220
Pan-Slavism, failure of, 123
Panna Marya, church of,

c,i i. 61
Paul (Tzar) to Kosciuszko,

IT.".- 177

nits, and the future of

Poland, 282-247; life of.
wedding among,

289 in Gall-

eia. 243, -J« ( : Xainyslaw-

ski's orchestra, 270; in

America, 827-882

3i>6

INDEX

Perkowski, Waclaw, 341 ; statement, 30 ; in Prussia,
note on pronunciation of 84; in Russia, 100

Polish, 348-353 Polonism, see Polish ques-

Peter the Great, policy of. tion

toward Europe, 115, 117 Poniatowski, Prince An-

Plant£, circular boulevard drew, 340, 341

of Cracow, 55 Poniatowski, Stanislaw, the

Plater, Emilia, fights as a last Polish king, 158; and
man in the Polish armies, Suwarrow, 127, 128

225 Posen, importance of mod-

Podbipienta, errand to King era, 73

Jan Kazimierz, 184 Potocka, Countess of (paint-
Poland, best book on, by a ingh 231

foreigner, 8; reconstruc- Poznafi, see Posen

tion of, 10 ; compared with Praga, Sunday park in, 135,
the United States, 11; 137

r61e of, in history, 17-29; Press, the Polish, in Amer-
Victor Hugo on, 18; Mor- ica, 344

fill, Brandes, and Rosen- Prochownik, Abraham, in
thai on, 12; champion of Polish history, 250

West against East, 19; Prus Boleslaw (Alexander
peasant of, 231-247; at Glowacki), novels of, 282

greatest extent, 21 ; politi- Prussia, see also Germany ;
cal constitution of, 22, 23 ; a fief of the Polish crown,
characteristics of Russian, 70; and the Teutonic
100, 103 ; labour laws in Knights, 74 ; and economic
Russian, 107; political progress in Polish prov-
parties in, 107-110; wo- inces, 91, 92

men of, 221-231 ; history Przybyszewski, Stanislaw,
of Jews in 248-264 282

Poles, temperament of, 22, Pulaski, Kazimierz, in Anier-
23, 25, 26, 27; and Ger- ica, 326
many's world dream, 70-

98; grateful to Austria, Quo YADisf How Sienkie-
31 ; relation to land in wicz wrote, 317, 318
Germany, 88; increase of,

in Prussia, 88, 89 ; and the Racxawice, battle of, 166,
language question in Ger- 170-173

man schools, 91, 92; Religion, devotion of the
economic position of, in Poles, 192-206

Prussia, 91, 92; in Russia Reszkes, Polish homes of
and Germany, 95; future the, 273

relations with Russia, 121, Reymont, Wladyslaw, 282

122 ; religion among, 192- Rodziewicz, Marya, 282

206; traces of Orient in, Roloff, General Carlos, 343

267, 268; in America, 326- Rosenthal, Herman, on the
347 Polish Jew, 12

Polish question, general Russia, see also Warsaw;

357

INDEX

European door of, 99-122; Vienna"), 70; relations

reached via Poland, 99, to Warsaw, 130, 131 ;

100; and the Polish prob- elected King of Poland,

lem, 100; expansion of, 140-144; speech at elect-

114, 122 ; an agricultural Ing convention, 143 ; sends

state, 118, 119; and a Pan Michael to Kami-

Paciflc water-front, 120, eniec, 209, 210; saves

121, future of Poland and, Tremb6wla, 211

121, 122 ; a Polish king of, Sobolewski, Edward, 340

128, 129; and the Jew, Sosnowska, Ludwika, court-

249, 250, 253, 258-263 ed by Kosciuszko, 157, 159

Russiflcation, 104, 105, 106, Sosnowski, Joseph, befriends

111, 112 Kosciuszko, 156

South America, Poles in,
327, 343

Samolinski, Mrs., 340 Stachiewicz, Piotr, 279

Scandinavia, and Germany, Stas, Helena, 340

82, 83 Steppes, a voyage over the,

Schools, Poles in Prussian, 207-220; sadness of the,

91; for peasants in Gall- 265-268

cia, 243, 244 Sukiennice, 53

Sembrich, Marcella, art of, Suwarrow, and the Polish

273 constitution, 109; kills

Shrines, wayside, in Galicia, Poles at Warsaw, 127,

185 128; executes Jews at

Siemiradzkl, painting of, Praga, 251

277, 278 Sweden, wars with Poland,

Siemiradzki, Professor 195 ; armies of, besiege

Thomas, 346, 347 Czenstochowa, 196; King

Slenkiewicz, Henryk, on Charles Gustavus of, and

Slav characteristics, 25; Poland, 195, 196

an inspiration to Prussian Szczekocin, battle of, 173
Poles, 96 ; on " German-
Ism," 96, 97; Trilogy of,

181, 182; read by more Tabnopol, In history, 210,

Russians than Tolstoi, 211

286; Poland's modern In- Teutonic Knights, foundn-
terpreter, 313-325 tion of the order of, 73, 74
Skrzetuski, heroism of, 190 Tremb6wla, rescued by So-
Slav, characteristics, Sien- bieski, 211
kiewicz on, 25; tempera- Trilogy, of Sienkiewicz's
ment of the, 193; music novels, 181, 182
and, 265-273 Turkey, Sultan of, invades
Slowacki, 281 Hungary, and besieges
Smolinski, Col. Joseph, 339 Vienna, 145; general of,
Smulski, John F., 347 besieges Kamienlec, 207-
Sobieskl, King John (paint- 220
lng, " Sobieski before Tyssowski, 327

358

INDEX

Ukraine, first mention of, Wianki, celebration of, in
207, 208 Cracow, 59

Wlodek, Louis, on the Poles
in America, 332-336

Veto, Sobieski threatens to Wojciech, St, holy deeds of,
exercise the right of, 142 71, 73

Vienna, what V. owes to Women, of Poland, 221-231;
John Sobieski, 43; Con- among the peasants, 239-
gress of, 94, 100, 101, 109 ; 242 ; " Poland is not yet
how V. escaped the Turk, lost," 221

138-152 Wyczolkowski, 278, 279

Virgin Mary, see Matka

Boska Yebmak, founder of Russia's

Voltaire, on Polish trade in Asiatic empire, 114
the Middle Ages, 35

" Vyedomosti " ( St. Peters- Zagloba, at Zbaraz, 191 ;
burg), on autonomy for character of, 319, 321, 322

Poland, 112 Zahajkiewicz, Felix S., 341

Zakopane, visit to Sienkie-
wicz at, 315; style of

Walewska (Madame), and architecture and decora-
Napoleon, 223 tion, 315

Wanda, daughter of Krakus, Zakrzewska, Dr. Mary Eliz-
49 224 abeth 339 340

Warsaw, " Thaddeus of," 8 ; Zal, meaning of, 269, 270

the geographical centre of Zalinski, Captain Edmund
Europe, 123-137 ; a western Louis Gray, 338, 339

European city, 124; trade Zaporagian Cossacks, 208,
of, 124, 125; history of, 209

125 ; " order " in, 128 ; Zbaraz, siege of, 181-191

literature in, 132, 133; Zborowski (Zabriskie), the
drama in, 133; aristocracy family in America, 342,
in, 133 ; popular theatre of, 343

134 " Z Dymem Pozar6w," musi-

Wawel, the Westminster cal score of, 67, 68

Abbey of Poland, 46, 48, Zeromski, Stanislaw, 282

49 ; riches and decorations " Zgoda," 345

of, 56-59 Zwianzek Narodowy Polski,

West Point, Kosciuszko the see National Alliance,
engineer in constructing, Polish

160 Zychlinski, Louis, 339

859

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